Transmission electron microscope apparatus with equipment for inspecting defects in specimen and method of inspecting defects in specimen using transmission electron microscope

A transmission electron microscope apparatus including an electrostatic lens that applies an accelerating voltage to an electron beam generated from an electron source, a specimen stage holding the specimen, a condenser lens and an objective lens provided so that said electron beam is focused on said specimen, a projection lens that enlarges the transmission image obtained by passing said electron beam through said specimen, an image acquisition apparatus that detects said enlarged transmission image, said transmission electron microscope apparatus comprising:

• a setting device for setting a plurality of inclination conditions of said electron beam being irradiated on said specimen with different desired deflecting angles (α, θ) representing a combination of an angle of incidence α and an orientation angle θ;
• a deflection coil for sequentially deflecting said electron beam which is irradiated with said different desired deflecting angles (α, θ) according to said inclination conditions, said deflection coil being provided between said specimen stage and said projection lens;
• and
• a shift coil for shifting said electron beam deflected by said deflection coil so as to automatically focus said electron beam on substantially a same position on said image acquisition apparatus;
• wherein a good or no good condition of said specimen is inspected by comparing an output of said image acquisition apparatus with a reference image previously stored.

A method of inspecting a semiconductor specimen using a transmission electron microscope apparatus, said method comprising the steps of:

• setting a plurality of inclination conditions of an electron beam being irradiated on said specimen with different desired deflecting angles (α, θ) representing a combination of an angle of incidence α and an orientation angle θ;
• sequentially deflecting said electron beam which is irradiated with said different desired deflecting angles (α, θ) according to said inclination conditions;
• and
• shifting said electron beam deflected by said deflection coil so as to automatically focus said electron beam on substantially a same position on an image acquisition apparatus for detecting an image of said electron beam;
• wherein a good or no good condition of said specimen is inspected by comparing an output of said image acquisition apparatus with a reference image previously stored.

A method of detecting defects in a specimen using a transmission electron microscope apparatus in which there is an electrostatic lens that applies an accelerating voltage to an electron beam generated from an electron source, a condenser lens and an objective lens provided so that said electron beam is focussed on said specimen, a projection lens that enlarges the transmission image obtained by passing said electron beam through said specimen, an image acquisition apparatus that detects said electron beam that has passed through said specimen, and a display apparatus that displays the image of said specimen based on the output from said image acquisition apparatus, said method comprising the steps of:

• setting a plurality of inclination conditions of said electron beam being irradiated on said specimen with different desired deflecting angles (α, θ) representing a combination of an angle of incidence α and an orientation angle θ;
• sequentially deflecting said electron beam which is irradiated with different multiple deflection angles (α, θ) representing a combination of an angle of incidence α and an orientation angle θ;
• shifting back said electron beam with a shift coil according to said different multiple deflection angles (α, θ) so as to automatically focus said electron beam on substantially a same position on said image acquisition apparatus;
• and
• displaying on said display apparatus the image of said specimen based on the output of said image acquisition apparatus obtained by irradiating said specimen with said electron beam at said different multiple deflection angles (α, θ).