Charged particle beam apparatus

A charged particle beam apparatus including:

• a specimen chamber containing a specimen stage for holding a specimen;
• a charged particle beam column for scanning on the specimen with a primary charged particle beam, and detecting a secondary signal of a secondary charged particle generated from the specimen to thereby output results of detection in the form of an output signal;
• and an operation unit for converting the output signal into pixel data, the charged particle beam column comprising:
• a magnetic lens unit for causing a magnetic field excited by current to act on the primary charged particle beam;
• and
• a control power supply source for executing a process for reducing magnetic hysteresis present in the magnetic lens unit by supplying the magnetic lens unit with excitation current of a predetermined magnitude for a predetermined time,
• wherein the excitation current supplied by the magnetic lens unit at the time of the process for reducing the magnetic hysteresis is provided with an overshoot region where an excitation current value is greater than either an initial value of the excitation current or a final value thereof, or an undershoot region where the excitation current value is smaller than either the initial value or the final value between the initial value and the final value.

A defect-review system for acquiring a scanning electron beam image on the basis of information on a position of a defect existing on a semiconductor wafer, said defect-review system comprising:

• a specimen platform for holding the semiconductor wafer;
• a scanning electron microscope for scanning a region containing the position of the defect with a primary electron beam to thereby acquire the scanning electron beam image;
• a specimen stage for transferring the specimen platform in order to transfer the position of the defect to an irradiation position of the primary charged particle beam;
• and
• a display device for displaying the scanning electron beam image,
• wherein the scanning electron microscope includes:
• magnetic lens unit for causing a magnetic field excited by an excitation current to act on the primary charged particle beam;
• and
• a power supply unit for executing a process for reducing magnetic hysteresis present in the magnetic lens unit by supplying the magnetic lens unit with excitation current of a predetermined magnitude for a predetermined time only,
• wherein said defect-review system stops the process for reducing the magnetic hysteresis at a point in time when a diameter of a spot of the primary charged particle beam becomes smaller than a resolution required of data on the scanning electron beam image.