A multi-beam inspection apparatus including an adjustable beam separator is disclosed. The adjustable beam separator is configured to change a path of a secondary particle beam. The adjustable beam separator comprises a first Wien filter and a second Wien filter. Both Wien filters are aligned with a primary optical axis. The first Wien filter and the second Wien filter are independently controllable via a first excitation input and a second excitation input, respectively. The adjustable beam separator is configured move the effective bending point of the adjustable beam separator along the primary optical axis based on the first excitation input and the second excitation input.

According to one aspect of the present invention, an aberration corrector includes a first electrode substrate provided with first passage holes through which multiple electron beams pass; a second electrode substrate disposed below the first electrode substrate and provided with second passage holes through which the multiple electron beams pass, first electrodes of four or more poles being disposed individually on each top surface region of top surface regions around some second passage holes among the second passage holes; and a third electrode substrate disposed below the second electrode substrate and provided with third passage holes through which the multiple electron beams pass, second electrodes of four or more poles being disposed individually on each of top surface region of top surface regions around some third passage holes corresponding to remaining second passage holes in which the first electrodes are not disposed, among the third passage holes.

A transmission electron microscope includes a control unit that: determines an excitation amount of a second illumination system lens based on an excitation amount of first illumination system lens such that the second illumination system lens satisfies a first optical condition; and determines a control amount of a first deflector and a control amount of a second deflector based on the excitation amount of the second illumination system lens such that the first deflector and the second deflector satisfy a second optical condition. The first optical condition is for a convergence angle of the electron beam to be constant even if the excitation amount of the first illumination system lens has changed, and the second optical condition is for an illuminating position of the electron beam and an illuminating angle of the electron beam to be constant even if the excitation amount of the first illumination system lens has changed.

A transmission electron microscope includes a control unit that: determines an excitation amount of a second illumination system lens based on an excitation amount of first illumination system lens such that the second illumination system lens satisfies a first optical condition; and determines a control amount of a first deflector and a control amount of a second deflector based on the excitation amount of the second illumination system lens such that the first deflector and the second deflector satisfy a second optical condition. The first optical condition is for a convergence angle of the electron beam to be constant even if the excitation amount of the first illumination system lens has changed, and the second optical condition is for an illuminating position of the electron beam and an illuminating angle of the electron beam to be constant even if the excitation amount of the first illumination system lens has changed.

A multi charged particle beam apparatus irradiates a substrate placed on a stage with a multi charged particle beam through an illumination optical system including a plurality of components, and an objective lens successively. In one embodiment, an optical system adjustment method for the multi charged particle beam apparatus includes measuring positional deviation amounts of a plurality of individual beams included in the multi charged particle beam at two or more different heights in an optical axis direction of a measurement surface or an imaging position of the multi charged particle beam, calculating a normalized position difference based on the two or more heights and the positional deviation amounts, the normalized position difference being an illumination system aberration equivalent amount of the illumination optical system, and adjusting a set value for at least one of the plurality of components using a value of the normalized position difference.

The present disclosure proposes a crossover-forming deflector array of an electro-optical system for directing a plurality of electron beams onto an electron detection device. The crossover-forming deflector array includes a plurality of crossover-forming deflectors positioned at or at least near an image plane of a set of one or more electro-optical lenses of the electro-optical system, wherein each crossover-forming deflector is aligned with a corresponding electron beam of the plurality of electron beams.

When a charged particle beam aperture having an annular shape is used, since a charged particle beam directly above the optical axis having the highest current density in the charged particle beam is blocked, it is difficult to dispose the charged particle beam aperture at an optimal mounting position. An charged particle beam apparatus includes a charged particle beam source that generates a charged particle beam, a charged particle beam aperture, a charged particle beam aperture power supply that applies a voltage to the charged particle beam aperture, an objective lens for focusing the charged particle beam on a sample, a detector that detects secondary charged particles emitted by irradiating the sample with the charged particle beam, a computer that forms a charged particle beam image based on the secondary charged particles detected by the detector, in which the position of the charged particle beam aperture is set so that the charged particle beam image does not move and changes concentrically in synchronization with the AC voltage, in a state where an AC voltage is applied to the charged particle beam aperture by the charged particle beam aperture power supply.

A charged particle beam device includes: a charged particle source; an optical system which acts on a charged particle beam emitted from the charged particle source; a control unit which controls the optical system; and a storage unit which stores previous setting values of the optical system. The optical system includes a first optical element and a second optical element for controlling a state of the charged particle beam to be incident on the first optical element. The control unit obtains an initial value of a setting value of the second optical element based on previous setting values of the second optical element; and changes a state of the charged particle beam by changing the setting value of the second optical element from the obtained initial value and obtains the setting value of the second optical element based on the change in the state of the charged particle beam.

An object of the invention is to accurately correct a deviation in position or angle between observation regions in an imaging device that acquires images of a plurality of sample sections. The imaging device according to the invention identifies a correspondence relationship between the observation regions between the sample sections using a feature point on a first image, corrects a deviation between the sample sections using a second image in a narrower range than the first image, and after reflecting a correction result, acquires a third image having a higher resolution than the second image (see FIG. 6B).

A multi-beam apparatus for observing a sample with oblique illumination is proposed. In the apparatus, a new source-conversion unit changes a single electron source into a slant virtual multi-source array, a primary projection imaging system projects the array to form plural probe spots on the sample with oblique illumination, and a condenser lens adjusts the currents of the plural probe spots. In the source-conversion unit, the image-forming means not only forms the slant virtual multi-source array, but also compensates the off-axis aberrations of the plurality of probe spots. The apparatus can provide dark-field images and/or bright-field images of the sample.