Charged particle beam device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11626266-B2
Application number	US-202117501249-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 14, 2021
Priority date	Oct 28, 2020
Publication date	Apr 11, 2023
Grant date	Apr 11, 2023

Abstract

Provided is a charged particle beam device capable of focusing with high accuracy even when a charged particle beam has a large off-axis amount. The charged particle beam device generates an observation image of a sample by irradiating the sample with a charged particle beam, and includes: a deflection unit that inclines the charged particle beam; a focusing lens that focuses the charged particle beam; an adjustment unit that adjusts a lens strength of the focusing lens based on an evaluation value calculated from the observation image; a storage unit that stores a relationship between a visual field movement amount and the lens strength; and a filter setting unit that calculates the visual field movement amount based on an inclination angle of the charged particle beam and the relationship, and sets an image filter to be superimposed on the observation image based on the calculated visual field movement amount.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A charged particle beam device that generates an observation image of a sample by irradiating the sample with a charged particle beam, the charged particle beam device comprising:
a deflection unit that inclines the charged particle beam;
a focusing lens that focuses the charged particle beam;
an adjustment unit that adjusts a lens strength of the focusing lens based on an evaluation value calculated from the observation image;
a storage unit that stores a relationship between a visual field movement amount, which is an amount of movement of the charged particle beam on the sample for each off-axis amount that is an amount of the charged particle beam moving away from a center of the focusing lens, and the lens strength; and
a filter setting unit that calculates the visual field movement amount based on an inclination angle of the charged particle beam and the relationship, and sets an image filter to be superimposed on the observation image based on the calculated visual field movement amount, wherein
the evaluation value is calculated from a superimposed image obtained by superimposing the image filter on the observation image.

2. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
the filter setting unit sets a position of the image filter based on the visual field movement amount.

3. The charged particle beam device according to claim 2 , wherein
when the image filter protrudes from a region of the observation image, the filter setting unit narrows a width of the image filter.

4. The charged particle beam device according to claim 3 , wherein
when the image filter is a rectangular function, a length of one side of the observation image is A, and the visual field movement amount is Δ, the filter setting unit sets the width of the image filter to be A−2Δ.

5. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
the filter setting unit sets a size of the image filter based on the visual field movement amount.

6. The charged particle beam device according to claim 1 , wherein
the relationship is created by measuring a visual field movement amount from an observation image of a known sample, which is a sample having a known shape, imaged while changing a lens strength and an off-axis amount.

7. The charged particle beam device according to claim 6 , wherein
the known sample has a protrusion in an annular shape or a cross shape.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Hitomi Keiichiro
• Tanimoto Kenji
• Abe Yusuke
• Yamamoto Takuma
• Sakai Kei
• Yamaguchi Satoru
• Goto Yasunori
• Takahashi Shuuichirou

Classifications

• H01J37/21

  Means for adjusting the focus · CPC title

• H01J2237/216

  Automatic focusing methods · CPC title

• H01J37/10

  Lenses · CPC title

• H01J37/1472

  Deflecting along given lines · CPC title

• H01J37/222 Primary

  Image processing arrangements associated with the tube · CPC title