Electron microscope charge-up prevention method and electron microscope

#1. Field of the Invention

#This invention relates to an electron microscope charge-up prevention method and an electron microscope capable of eliminating electricity of a pecimen charged-up s by a specimen charge-up phenomenon occurring in a scanning electron microscope, a transmission electron microscope, etc.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram to show the configuration of a scanning electron microscope according to one embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 2 is an image drawing to show an example of a user interface screen of a scanning electron microscope operation program;

#FIG. 3 is a graph to show the emission efficiency of secondary electrons relative to landing acceleration voltage when a primary electron emitted from an electron gun arrives at a specimen;

#Referring now to the accompanying drawings, there is shown a preferred embodiment of the invention. However, it is to be understood that the following embodiment is illustrative for an electron microscope charge-up prevention method and an electron microscope capable of eliminating electricity of a charged-up specimen to embody the technical philosophy of the invention and that the invention does not limit the an electron microscope charge-up prevention method and the electron microscope capable of eliminating electricity of a charged-up specimen to the following.

#It is also to be understood that the specification does not limit the members defined in the appended claims to the members in the embodiment. The sizes of members shown in the accompanying drawings, their positional relationship, and the like may be exaggerated to clarify the description.

#In the specification, an electron microscope, a computer connected thereto for operation, control, display, other processing etc., and other peripheral machines of a printer, etc., are electrically connected, for example, as serial connection or parallel connection of IEEE1394, RS-232C, RS-422, USB, etc., or through a network of 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, etc., for conducting communications. The connection is not limited to physical connection using wires and may be wireless connection using radio waves, infrared rays, optical communications, etc., such as wireless LAN, Bluetooth, etc. Further, a memory card, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, semiconductor memory, etc., can be used as a record medium for storing data of observation images, etc.