Twin beam charged particle column and method of operating thereof
AssigneeICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft für Halbleiterprüftechnik mbH
InventorJürgen Frosien
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Abstract
A column for a charged particle beam device is described. The column includes a charged particle emitter for emitting a primary charged particle beam as one source of the primary charged particle beam; a biprism adapted for acting on the primary charged particle beam so that two virtual sources are generated; and a charged particle beam optics adapted to focus the charged particle beam simultaneously on two positions of a specimen corresponding to images of the two virtual sources.
Claims16
A column for a charged particle beam device, said column comprising:
- a charged particle emitter for emitting a primary charged particle beam as one source of the primary charged particle beam;
- a biprism adapted for acting on the primary charged particle beam so that two virtual sources are generated;
- a charged particle beam optics adapted to focus the charged particle beam simultaneously on two positions of a specimen corresponding to images of the two virtual sources;
- a beam separator for separating the primary charged particle beam and particles selected from the group consisting of secondary particles coming from the specimen, backscattered particles coming from the specimen, and secondary particles and backscattered particles coming from the specimen;
- and
- at least one detector for measuring the particles selected from the group consisting of secondary particles coming from the specimen, backscattered particles coming from the specimen, and secondary particles and backscattered particles coming from the specimen.
A charged particle beam device, comprising:
- a charged particle beam column wherein the charged particle beam device is an electron inspection tool, and wherein said column comprises:
- a charged particle emitter for emitting a primary charged particle beam as one source of the primary charged particle beam;
- a biprism adapted for acting on the primary charged particle beam so that two virtual sources are generated;
- a charged particle beam optics adapted to focus the charged particle beam simultaneously on two positions of a specimen corresponding to images of the two virtual sources;
- a beam separator for separating the primary charged particle beam and particles selected from the group consisting of secondary particles coming from the specimen, backscattered particles coming from the specimen, and secondary particles and backscattered particles coming from the specimen;
- and
- at least one detector for measuring the particles selected from the group consisting of secondary particles coming from the specimen, backscattered particles coming from the specimen, and secondary particles and backscattered particles coming from the specimen.
A method of operating a charged particle beam column, the method comprising:
- emitting a charged particle beam from one source;
- generating two sub-beams with a biprism;
- focusing the two sub-beams on two positions of a specimen such that images of two virtual sources are generated;
- separating, by a beam separator, the primary charged particle beam and particles selected from the group consisting of secondary particles coming from the specimen, backscattered particles coming from the specimen, and secondary particles and backscattered particles coming from the specimen;
- and
- measuring the particles selected from the group consisting of secondary particles coming from the specimen, backscattered particles coming from the specimen, and secondary particles and backscattered particles coming from the specimen with at least one detector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.