The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for measuring and correcting drift distortion in images obtained using the scanning microscope. One method includes obtaining an image series of a sample acquired using scanning-microscope by rotating scan coordinates of the microscope between successive image frames. The method further includes determining at least one measurement of an angle or a distance associated with an image feature as a function of rotation angle from the series of rotated images. The method further includes using the at least one measurement to determine a model for drift distortion in the series of images. The method further includes using the drift distortion model to generate a drift corrected image from the series of images.

The present invention makes it possible to analyze trace carbon in a sample without the effects of contamination. In an electron probe microanalyzer, a liquid nitrogen trap and a plasma or oxygen radical generator are jointly used as a means for suppressing contamination, and two or more carbon detection units for detecting characteristic x-rays of carbon in the sample are provided.

Generating an image of an object and/or a representation of data about the object uses a particle beam apparatus. The particle beam apparatus comprises at least one control unit for setting a guide unit by selecting a value of a control parameter of the control unit. A functional relationship is determined between a first control parameter value and a second control parameter value depending on the predeterminable range of a landing energy of the particles. A desired value of the landing energy is set. The value of the control parameter corresponding to the desired value of the landing energy is selected on the basis of the determined functional relationship and the guide unit is controlled using the value of the control parameter corresponding to the desired value of the landing energy.

Provided are a defect observation method and a defect observation device which detect a defect from an image obtained by imaging the defect on a sample with an optical microscope by using positional information of the defect on the sample detected by a different inspection device to correct the positional information of the defect and observe in detail the defect on the sample with a scanning electron microscope using the corrected positional information. The defect observation method includes detecting the defect from the image to correct the positional information of the defect, switching a spatially-distributed optical element of a detection optical system of the optical microscope according to the defect to be detected, and changing an image acquisition condition for acquiring the image and an image processing condition for detecting the defect from the image according to a type of the switched spatially-distributed optical element.

A defect inspection device is provided with an illumination optical system that irradiates light or an electron beam onto a sample, a detector that detects a signal obtained from the sample through the irradiation of the light or electron beam, a defect detection unit that detects a defect candidate on the sample through the comparison of a signal output by the detector and a prescribed threshold, and a display unit that displays a setting screen for setting the threshold. The setting screen is a two-dimensional distribution map that represents the distribution of the defect candidates in a three dimensional feature space having three features as the axes thereof and includes the axes of the three features and the threshold, which is represented in one dimension.

A pattern inspection apparatus includes a column to scan a substrate on which a pattern is formed, using multi-beams composed of a plurality of electron beams, a first stage to be able to move up to a first stroke by which an entire surface of an inspection region of the substrate can be irradiated with the multi-beams, a second stage, arranged on the first stage, to be able to move up to a second stroke sufficiently shorter than the first stroke and to place the substrate thereon, and a detector to detect secondary electrons emitted from the substrate because the substrate is irradiated with the multi-beams.

A pattern inspection apparatus includes a column to scan a substrate on which a pattern is formed, using multi-beams composed of a plurality of electron beams, a stage to mount the substrate thereon and to be movable, a detector to detect secondary electrons emitted from the substrate because the substrate is irradiated with the multi-beams, and a drive mechanism to move the detector in order to follow movement of the stage.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a pattern measurement device for quantitatively evaluating a pattern formed using a directed self-assembly (DSA) method with high accuracy. The present invention is a pattern measurement device for measuring distances between patterns formed in a sample, wherein the centroids of a plurality of patterns included in an image are determined; the inter-centroid distances, and the like, of the plurality of centroids are determined; and on the basis of the inter-centroid distances, and the like, of the plurality of centroids, a pattern meeting a specific condition is distinguished from patterns different from the pattern meeting the specific condition or information is calculated about the number of the patterns meeting the specific condition, the size of an area including the patterns meeting the specific condition, and the number of imaginary lines between the patterns meeting the specific condition.

An inspection system that includes charged particle optics that irradiate a bottom of a hole with a charged particle beam propagated along an optical axis, an energy dispersive x-ray detector and a processor. The x-ray detector detects x-ray photons emitted from the bottom of the hole and generates detection signals indicative of the x-ray photons. The processor processes the detection signals to provide an estimate of the bottom of the hole.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus comprising a primary beam column configured to direct a primary beam of energetic particles onto a location of interest on a sample containing one or more integrated circuit structures, a detector configured to produce a signal in response to detection of secondary charged particles generated as a result of an interaction between the primary beam of energetic particles and the location of interest, and a signal processor coupled to the detector configured to measure the transient behavior of generation of the secondary charged particles from the signal produced by the detector, and a characterizing module configured to characterize the location of interest by comparing the measured transient behavior to a predetermined reference transient behavior. The detector has a response that is fast enough to detect a transient behavior of generation of the secondary charged particles.