US 7,718,981 B2Granted

Composite charged-particle beam system

AssigneeSII NanoTechnology Inc.

InventorsHaruo Takahashi, Yo Yamamoto, Toshiaki Fujii

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Abstract

There is provided a method of arranging, as a composite charged-particle beam system, a gas ion beam apparatus, an FIB and an SEM in order to efficiently prepare a TEM sample. The composite charged-particle beam system includes an FIB lens-barrel 1, an SEM lens-barrel 2, a gas ion beam lens-barrel 3, and a rotary sample stage 9 having an eucentric tilt mechanism and a rotating shaft 10 orthogonal to an eucentric tilt axis 8. In the composite charged-particle beam system, an arrangement is made such that a focused ion beam 4, an electron beam 5 and a gas ion beam 6 intersect at a single point, an axis of the FIB lens-barrel 1 and an axis of the SEM lens barrel 2 are orthogonal to the eucentric tilt axis 8, respectively, and the axis of the FIB lens-barrel 1, an axis of the gas ion beam lens-barrel 3 and the eucentric tilt axis 8 are in one plane.

Claims1

Dependent claims

A. composite charged-particle beam system comprising at least a focused ion beam apparatus, a scanning electron microscope, a gas ion beam apparatus and a sample stage, wherein

said sample stage includes an eucentric tilt mechanism for tilting at least a sample at an identical height, and a sample stage rotating shaft orthogonal to an eucentric tilt axis serving as an axis of said eucentric tilt mechanism, and
said focused ion beam apparatus, said scanning electron microscope and said gas ion beam apparatus are arranged and adjusted such that a focused ion beam emitted from said focused ion beam apparatus, an electron beam emitted from said scanning electron microscope and a gas ion beam emitted from said gas ion beam apparatus intersect at an area defined as a single point, and are arranged such that an axis of a lens-barrel of said focused ion beam apparatus and an axis of a lens-barrel of said electron microscope are substantially orthogonal to said eucentric tilt axis, respectively, and the axis of the lens-barrel of said focused ion beam, an axis of a lens-barrel of said gas ion beam and said eucentric tilt axis are in one plane.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/134,919Filed 6 Jun 2008 · continuation
Priority: JP 2005-3557349 Dec 2005
Published: US 2008/0315088 A125 Dec 2008
Granted: 18 May 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H01J 37/20
Details: means for supporting or positioning the object or the material; Means for adjusting diaphragms or lenses associated with the support
H01J 37/3056
For evaporating or etching: for microworking, e. g. etching of gratings or trimming of electrical components
H01J 2237/20242
Movement: eucentric movement
H01J 2237/31745
Etching microareas: for preparing specimen to be viewed in microscopes or analyzed in microanalysers

Family

PCT/JP2006/323750Parent of this continuation · filed 29 Nov 2006
US 2008/0315088 A1Pre-grant publication · published 25 Dec 2008
US 7,718,981 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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