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US 2012/0057015 A1Published application
Scan method
AssigneeCarl Zeiss NTS GmbH
InventorBilly W. Ward
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In general, in one aspect, the disclosure features a method and system for imaging of samples, for example, imaging samples with charged particles.
Claims23
A method comprising:
- exposing a first portion of a sample to a charged particle beam to generate a first image of the first portion of the sample;
- receiving, at a control system, a directional input;
- determining if a second portion of the sample adjacent to the first portion of the sample in a direction based on the directional input has been previously exposed to generate an image of the second portion;
- if the second portion has been previously exposed, retrieving the image of the second portion from a memory;
- and
- if the second portion has not been previously exposed, exposing a second portion of the sample adjacent to the first portion of the sample in a direction based on the directional input to a charged particle beam to generate a second image;
- combining at least a portion of the first image with the second image or the retrieved image of the second portion to generate a third image;
- and
- displaying the third image on a user interface.
6 more elements
A method comprising:
- exposing a sample to a charged particle beam to generate a first image of a first portion of the sample;
- exposing portions of the sample adjacent to the first portion of the sample in multiple directions to a charged particle beam to generate a set of adjacent images;
- receiving, at a control system, a directional input;
- combining at least a portion of the first image with at least a portion of one or more of the adjacent images to generate a third image;
- and
- displaying the third image on a user interface.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- displaying, on a user interface associated with a particle beam system, a first image of a first portion of a sample, the first image comprising an image generated by exposing the first portion of the sample to a charged particle beam;
- displaying, on the user interface, a second image of a second portion of the sample, the second portion of the sample including a non-overlapping region not included in the first portion and an overlapping region included in the first portion;
- the second image comprising an image generated by exposing the non-overlapping region of the sample to a charged particle beam without exposing the overlapping region to the charged particle beam.
A method comprising:
- displaying a slow scan image of a first portion of a sample at a first magnification on a user interface;
- receiving an input indicating a second portion of the sample desired to be viewed at a second level of magnification that is different than the first level of magnification;
- determining if the second portion has been previously exposed to generate an image of the second portion at the second level of magnification;
- if the second portion has been previously exposed at the second level of magnification, retrieving the image of the second portion from a memory;
- and
- if the second portion has not been previously exposed at the second level of magnification, scanning the second portion of the sample at the second magnification using a slow scan technique, displaying the slow scan image of the second portion of the sample on the user interface.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- exposing a first portion of a sample to a charged particle beam to generate a first image of a the first portion of the sample at a first level of magnification;
- receiving an identification of one or more regions of interest in the first image;
- and
- exposing the identified regions of interest to the charged particle beam to generate a images of the regions of interest at a second level of magnification, the second level of magnification being greater than the first level of magnification.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.