Electron beam apparatus
AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation
InventorsSayaka TANIMOTO, Hiroya Ohta, Hiroshi Makino, Ryuichi Funatsu
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Abstract
A plurality of primary beams are formed from a single electron source, the surface charge of a sample is controlled by at least one primary beam, and at the same time, the inspection of the sample is conducted using a primary beam other than this. Also, for an exposure area of the primary beam for surface charge control and an exposure area of the primary beam for the inspection, the surface electric field strength is set individually. Also, the current of the primary beam for surface charge control and the interval between the primary beam for surface charge control and the primary beam for inspection are controlled.
Claims17
An electron beam apparatus comprising an illumination optical system which irradiates an electron beam onto a sample, a detection optical system which detects a group of secondary charged particles generated from irradiation of said electron beam, a sample holder on which the sample is mounted, and a stage which moves said holder, wherein:
- the illumination optical system comprises:
- an illumination system separation unit which separates the electron beam into an electron beam for signal acquisition and an electron beam for surface charge control;
- and
- a unit to deflect said electron beam for signal acquisition and said electron beam for surface charge control to scan the sample,
- the detection optical system comprises:
- a detection system separation unit which separates a first group of secondary charged particles generated by irradiation of the electron beam for signal acquisition and a second secondary group of charged particles generated by irradiation of the electron beam for surface charge control;
- and
- a secondary charged particle detector which detects the first secondary charged particle;
- further, comprises a detected signal processing device which processes a signal detected by said secondary charged particle detector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.