Discharging a region of a sample
AssigneeApplied Materials Israel Ltd.
InventorsRoey Levy, Shachar Faigenblat, Alexander Goldenshtein
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for discharging a region of a sample, the system includes (i) illumination optics that is configured to discharge the region by illuminating the region of the sample with a laser pulse during an illumination iteration; and (ii) a timing circuit that is configured to trigger the illumination iteration to occur at a timing that is based on one or more timing constraints associated with a scanning of the region by an electron beam.
Claims15
A system for discharging different regions of a sample, the system comprising:
- a detector configured to measure a surface potential or charging rate of each of different regions;
- illumination optics configured to discharge the different regions by illuminating the different regions of the sample with laser pulses during illumination iterations;
- and
- a timing circuit configured to trigger the illumination iterations to occur at timings that are based on one or more timing constraints associated with a scanning of the different regions by an electron beam, wherein the timing circuit is further configured to adjust the timing or frequency of illumination iterations for the different regions in response to the measured surface potential or charging rate of each region to maintain the surface potential of the different regions within a predetermined neutral range suitable for stable imaging.
A method for discharging regions of a sample, the method comprising:
- measuring, for each of a plurality of different regions of the sample, a surface potential or charging rate of that region;
- triggering, by a timing circuit, illumination iterations to occur at timings that are based on one or more timing constraints associated with a scanning of the plurality of different regions by an electron beam;
- and
- discharging, by illumination optics, the regions by illuminating the regions of the sample with laser pulses during the illumination iterations;
- wherein the timing circuit is further configured to adjust the timing or frequency of illumination iterations for different regions in response to the measured surface potential or charging rate of each region to maintain the surface potential of the different regions within a predetermined neutral range suitable for stable imaging.
A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions that once executed by a timing circuit, causes the timing circuit to:
- measure, for each of a plurality of different regions of the sample, a surface potential or charging rate of that region;
- trigger, by a timing circuit, illumination iterations to occur at timings that are based on one or more timing constraints associated with a scanning of the plurality of different regions of a sample by an electron beam;
- wherein the illumination iteration comprises discharging, by illumination optics, the regions by illuminating the regions of the sample with laser pulses;
- wherein the timing circuit is further configured to adjust the timing or frequency of illumination iterations for different regions in response to the measured surface potential or charging rate of each region to maintain the surface potential of the different regions within a predetermined neutral range suitable for stable imaging.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.