Charged particle beam apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11335535-B2
Application number	US-202016920898-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2020
Priority date	Aug 8, 2019
Publication date	May 17, 2022
Grant date	May 17, 2022

Abstract

Provided is a charged particle beam apparatus capable of estimating an internal device structure of a sample. The charged particle beam apparatus includes an electron beam optical system, a detector, and a calculator. The electron beam optical system irradiates a plurality of irradiation points on a sample, which are different in position or time, with an electron beam. The detector detects electrons emitted from the sample in response to irradiation of the electron beam by the electron beam optical system. The calculator calculates a dependence relationship between the irradiation points based on the electrons detected by the detector at the plurality of irradiation points.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A charged particle beam apparatus, comprising:
a charged particle beam optical system configured to irradiate a plurality of irradiation points on a sample, which are different in position or time, with a charged particle beam;
a detector configured to detect electrons emitted from the sample in response to irradiation of the charged particle beam by the charged particle beam optical system;
a calculator configured to calculate a dependence relationship between the irradiation points based on the electrons detected by the detector at the plurality of irradiation points, by calculating the dependence relationship between the irradiation points while changing a scan direction of each said irradiation point from a first scan direction from a first of said plurality of irradiation points to a second of said plurality of irradiation points, to a second scan direction from the second irradiation point to the first irradiation point, said second scan direction being an opposite direction from said first scan direction;
an estimated structure database configured to store a correspondence relationship between the dependence relationship between the irradiation points and one of a plurality of corresponding equivalent circuits of an internal device structure; and
a comparator configured to output the corresponding equivalent circuit by comparing a calculation result by the calculator with the corresponding dependence relationship contained in the estimated structure database,
wherein the calculator is configured to compare detection results by the detector at each time point when a predetermined irradiation point is continuously irradiated with the charged particle beam, so as to calculate the dependence relationship between the irradiation points.

2. The charged particle beam apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a display device, wherein
the calculator is configured to generate a directed graph indicating the dependency relationship between the irradiation points, and display the directed graph on the display device.

3. The charged particle beam apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the directed graph includes a weighting coefficient indicating strength of the dependence relationship between the irradiation points.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Nakamura Yohei
• Miwa Takafumi
• KIMIZUKA Heita
• Tsuno Natsuki
• Fukuda Muneyuki

Classifications

• G01N23/2251

  using incident electron beams, e.g. scanning electron microscopy [SEM] · CPC title

• G01R31/307 Primary

  of integrated circuits · CPC title

• H01J37/28

  with scanning beams {(H01J37/268, H01J37/292, H01J37/2955 take precedence)} · CPC title

• H01J37/244 Primary

  Detectors; Associated components or circuits therefor · CPC title

• H01J37/224

  Luminescent screens or photographic plates for imaging; Apparatus specially adapted therefor, e. g. cameras, TV-cameras, photographic equipment or exposure control; Optical subsystems specially adapted therefor, e. g. microscopes for observing image on luminescent screen · CPC title