A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) system is disclosed. The SEM system includes an electron source configured to generate an electron beam and a set of electron optics configured to scan the electron beam across the sample and focus electrons scattered by the sample onto one or more imaging planes. The SEM system includes a first detector module positioned at the one or more imaging planes, wherein the first detector module includes a multipixel solid-state sensor configured to convert scattered particles, such as electrons and/or x-rays, from the sample into a set of equivalent signal charges. The multipixel solid-state sensor is connected to two or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) configured to process the set of signal charges from one or more pixels of the sensor.

The disclosure relates to an electron-optical module of an electron-optical apparatus. The electron-optical module comprises a vacuum chamber, a high voltage shielding arrangement located within the vacuum chamber, and an aperture array configured to form a plurality of beamlets from an electron beam and located within the high voltage shielding arrangement. Wherein the electron-optical module can be configured to be removable from the electron-optical apparatus.

A method comprising the irradiation of a wafer by an ion beam that passes through an implantation filter. The wafer is heated to a temperature of more than 200° C. The wafer is a semiconductor wafer including SiC, and the ion beam includes aluminum ions.

A method comprising the irradiation of a wafer by an ion beam that passes through an implantation filter. The wafer is heated to a temperature of more than 200° C. The wafer is a semiconductor wafer including SiC, and the ion beam includes aluminum ions.

Disclosed herein is a substrate stack comprising a plurality of substrates, wherein: each substrate in the substrate stack comprises at least one alignment opening set; the at least one alignment opening set in each substrate is aligned for a light beam to pass through corresponding alignment openings in each substrate; and each substrate comprises at least one alignment opening that has a smaller diameter than the corresponding alignment openings in the other substrates.

A flood column for charged particle flooding of a sample, the flood column comprising a charged particle source configured to emit a charged particle beam along a beam path; a source lens arranged down-beam of the charged particle source; a condenser lens arranged down-beam of the source lens; and an aperture body arranged down-beam of the condenser lens, wherein the aperture body is for passing a portion of the charged particle beam; and wherein the source lens is controllable so as to variably set the beam angle of the charged particle beam down-beam of the source lens.

It is provided a charged particle beam manipulation device for a plurality of charged particle beamlets, the charged particle beam manipulation device including a lens having a main optical axis, the lens including at least a first array of multipoles, each multipole of the first array of multipoles configured to compensate for a lens deflection force on a respective charged particle beamlet of the plurality of charged particle beamlets, the lens deflection force being a deflection force produced by the lens on the respective charged particle beamlet towards the main optical axis of the lens.

A charged particle system generates a charged particle multi beam along a multi beam path. The charged particle system comprises an aperture array, a beam limit array and a condenser lens. In the aperture array are an array of apertures to generate from an up-beam charged particle source charged particle paths down-beam of the aperture array. The beam-limit array is down-beam of the aperture array. Defined in the beam-limit array is an array of beam-limit apertures for shaping the charged particle multi beam path. The condenser lens system is between the aperture array and the beam-limit array. The condenser lens system selectively operates different of rotation settings that define different ranges of beam paths between the aperture array and the beam-limit array. At each rotation setting of the condenser lens system, each beam-limit aperture of the beam-limit array lies on a beam path down-beam of the aperture array.

A method includes moving a plurality of sensors along a translation path with respect to an ion beam, acquiring sensor signals produced by the plurality of sensors, converting the acquired sensor signals into a data set representative of a two-dimensional (2D) profile of the ion beam, generating a plurality of first one-dimensional (1D) profiles of the ion beam from the data set, generating a plurality of second 1D profiles of the ion beam by spatially inverting each of the plurality of first 1D profiles, generating a plurality of third 1D profiles of the ion beam by superposing first current density values of each of the plurality of first 1D profiles with second current density values of a corresponding one of the plurality of second 1D profiles and determining whether to continue an implantation process with the ion beam in accordance with the plurality of third 1D profiles.

A method of operating a beamline ion implanter may include performing, in an ion implanter, a first implant procedure to implant a dopant of a first polarity into a given semiconductor substrate, and generating an estimated implant dose of the dopant of the first polarity based upon a set of filtered information, generated by the first implant procedure. The method may also include calculating an actual implant dose of the dopant of the first polarity using a predictive model based upon the estimated implant dose, and performing, in the ion implanter, an adjusted second implant procedure to implant a dopant of a second polarity into a select semiconductor substrate, based upon the actual implant dose.