Charged particle beam apparatus, and sample processing and observation method
AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation
InventorsHiroyuki MUTO, Tsuyoshi Ohnishi, Isamu Sekihara
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Abstract
An object of the present invention relates to realizing the processing of a sample by charged particle beams and the monitoring of the processed cross-section with a high throughput. It is possible to process an accurate sample without an intended region lost even when the location and the size of the intended region are unknown by: observing a cross-sectional structure being processed by FIBs by using a secondary particle image generated from a sample by the ion beams shaving a cross section; forming at least two cross sections; and processing the sample while the processing and the monitoring of a processed cross section are carried out.
Claims18
A charged particle beam apparatus, comprising:
- a sample stage on which a sample is placed;
- a vacuum chamber to contain said sample stage;
- an ion beam system to generate and focus ion beams and scan said sample with said ion beams;
- a secondary particle detector to detect secondary particles generated from said sample;
- and
- a display device to display a secondary particle image formed by said secondary particles;
- and
- a control device to control the charged particle beam apparatus,
- wherein said charged particle beam apparatus:
- sets a strip-shaped ion beam fabrication area in the region containing said cross section from the direction of said ion beams in a cross section nearly parallel with the direction of said ion beams;
- processes said fabrication area by said ion beams;
- expands said secondary particle image during processing at least in the direction of the short side of the strip-shaped area;
- and
- displays said secondary particle image so as to be able to judge a cross-sectional structure by the display device.
A charged particle beam apparatus, comprising:
- a sample stage on which a sample is placed;
- a vacuum chamber to contain said sample stage;
- an ion beam system to generate and focus ion beams and scan said sample with said ion beams;
- an electron beam system to generate and focus electron beams and scan said sample with said electron beams;
- a secondary particle detector to detect secondary particles generated from said sample;
- a display device to display a secondary particle image formed by said secondary particles;
- and
- a control device to control the charged particle beam apparatus,
- wherein said charged particle beam apparatus:
- sets a strip-shaped ion beam fabrication area in the region containing said cross section from the direction of said ion beams in a cross section nearly parallel with the direction of said ion beams;
- processes said fabrication area by said ion beams;
- expands said secondary particle image during processing at least in the direction of the short side of the strip-shaped area;
- and
- displays said secondary particle image so as to be able to judge a cross-sectional structure by the display device.
A processing and observation method for displaying a cross-sectional structure so as to be judged by:
- placing a sample on a sample stage disposed in a vacuum chamber;
- processing said sample by ion beams;
- forming at least two samples from a cross section nearly parallel with the direction of said ion beams;
- setting a strip-shaped fabrication area in the region containing said cross section from the direction of said ion beams in a cross section nearly parallel with the direction of said ion beams;
- processing said fabrication area by said ion beams;
- and
- expanding a secondary particle image during processing at least in the direction of the short side of the strip-shaped area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.