A plasma processing apparatus includes: a plasma processing chamber; a substrate support disposed in the plasma processing chamber; an edge ring disposed on the substrate support to surround a substrate on the substrate support; an actuator configured to vertically move the edge ring; a gas supply configured to supply a cleaning gas into the plasma processing chamber; a power source configured to supply a power to the substrate support; and a controller configured to: (a) maintain the edge ring at a first position spaced apart from the substrate support; and (b) supply a power to the substrate support while supplying the cleaning gas into the plasma processing chamber to generate a local plasma in a gap between the edge ring maintained at the first position and the substrate support, thereby cleaning the edge ring and the substrate support.

A multi-beamlet charged particle beamlet lithography system for transferring a pattern to a surface of a substrate. The system comprises a projection system (311) for projecting a plurality of charged particle beamlets (7) onto the surface of the substrate; a chuck (313) moveable with respect to the projection system; a beamlet measurement sensor (.[.i.a..]. .Iadd.i.e., .Iaddend.505, 511) for determining one or more characteristics of one or more of the charged particle beamlets, the beamlet measurement sensor having a surface (501) for receiving one or more of the charged particle beamlets; and a position mark measurement system for measuring a position of a position mark (610, 620, 635), the position mark measurement system comprising an alignment sensor (361, 362). The chuck comprises a substrate support portion for supporting the substrate, a beamlet measurement sensor portion (460) for accommodating the surface of the beamlet measurement sensor, and a position mark portion (470) for accommodating the position mark.

A multiple-charged particle-beam irradiation apparatus includes a shaping aperture array substrate that causes a charged particle beam to pass through a plurality of first apertures to form multi-beams, a plurality of blanking aperture array substrates each provided with a plurality of second apertures, which enable corresponding beams to pass, and including a blanker arranged at each of the second apertures, a movable table on which the blanking aperture array substrates are mounted so as to be spaced apart from each other in a second direction, which is orthogonal to a first direction along an optical axis, and that moves in the second direction to position one of the blanking aperture array substrates on the optical axis, and an alignment mechanism that performs an alignment adjustment between the blanking aperture array substrate on the optical axis and the shaping aperture array substrate.

Provided is a multi-charged-particle beam writing apparatus including: an emitter emitting a charged particle beam; a first shaping aperture array substrate having a plurality of first apertures and forming first multiple beams by passing a part of the charged particle beam through the first apertures, respectively; a second shaping aperture array substrate having second apertures formed at positions corresponding to the respective first apertures and forming second multiple beams by passing at least a part of each of the first multiple beams through corresponding the second apertures, respectively; a blanking aperture array having third apertures formed at positions corresponding to the respective second apertures and including blankers disposed in the respective third apertures to perform blanking deflection on the respective beams of the corresponding second multiple beams; a movable mechanism moving at least one of the first shaping aperture array substrate and the second shaping aperture array substrate; and a controller controlling the movable mechanism.

An ion milling device capable of high-speed milling is realized even for a specimen containing a material having an imide bond. Therefore, the ion milling device includes: a vacuum chamber 6 configured to hold a specimen 3 in a vacuum atmosphere; an ion gun 1 configured to irradiate the specimen with a non-focused ion beam 2; a vaporization container 17 configured to store a mixed solution 13 of a water-soluble ionic liquid and water; and nozzles 11, 12 configured to supply water vapor obtained by vaporizing the mixed solution to a vicinity of a surface of the specimen processed by the ion beam.

In a charged particle beam device including a deceleration optical system, a change in a deceleration electric field and an axis shift due to a structure between an objective lens and a sample are prevented to reduce adverse effects on an irradiation system and detection system. The charged particle beam device includes an electron source, an objective lens configured to focus a probe electron beam from the electron source on the sample, an acceleration electrode configured to accelerate the probe electron beam, a first detector provided in the acceleration electrode, a deceleration electrode configured to form a deceleration electric field for the probe electron beam with the acceleration electrode, the probe electron beam being configured to pass through an opening of the deceleration electrode, and a second detector inserted between the deceleration electrode and the sample. The second detector includes an opening portion larger than the opening of the deceleration electrode, and a sensing surface is provided around the opening portion.

A plasma processing apparatus includes: a plasma processing chamber; a substrate support disposed in the plasma processing chamber; an edge ring disposed on the substrate support to surround a substrate on the substrate support; an actuator configured to vertically move the edge ring; a gas supply configured to supply a cleaning gas into the plasma processing chamber; a power source configured to supply a power to the substrate support; and a controller configured to: (a) maintain the edge ring at a first position spaced apart from the substrate support; and (b) supply a power to the substrate support while supplying the cleaning gas into the plasma processing chamber to generate a local plasma in a gap between the edge ring maintained at the first position and the substrate support, thereby cleaning the edge ring and the substrate support.

A plasma processing apparatus includes: a plasma processing chamber; a substrate support disposed in the plasma processing chamber; an edge ring disposed on the substrate support to surround a substrate on the substrate support; an actuator configured to vertically move the edge ring; a gas supply configured to supply a cleaning gas into the plasma processing chamber; a power source configured to supply a power to the substrate support; and a controller configured to: (a) maintain the edge ring at a first position spaced apart from the substrate support; and (b) supply a power to the substrate support while supplying the cleaning gas into the plasma processing chamber to generate a local plasma in a gap between the edge ring maintained at the first position and the substrate support, thereby cleaning the edge ring and the substrate support.

By irradiating a sample with an unfocused ion beam, processing accuracy of an ion milling device for processing a sample or reproducibility accuracy of a shape of a processed surface is improved. Therefore, the ion milling device includes a sample chamber, an ion source position adjustment mechanism provided at the sample chamber, an ion source attached to the sample chamber via the ion source position adjustment mechanism and configured to emit an ion beam, and a sample stage configured to rotate around a rotation center. When a direction in which the rotation center extends when an ion beam center of the ion beam matches the rotation center is set as a Z direction, and a plane perpendicular to the Z direction is set as an XY plane, the ion source position adjustment mechanism is capable of adjusting a position of the ion source on the XY plane and a position of the ion source in the Z direction.

A multi-beam apparatus for observing a sample with high resolution and high throughput and in flexibly varying observing conditions is proposed. The apparatus uses a movable collimating lens to flexibly vary the currents of the plural probe spots without influencing the intervals thereof, a new source-conversion unit to form the plural images of the single electron source and compensate off-axis aberrations of the plural probe spots with respect to observing conditions, and a pre-beamlet-forming means to reduce the strong Coulomb effect due to the primary-electron beam.