A method for processing an object, with material being removed from the object, includes directing a particle beam on the object so that a location of incidence of the particle beam on the object carries out a movement along a principal scanning path and a movement along a sub-scanning direction oriented transverse to the principal scanning path. The movement of the location of incidence of the particle beam along the sub-scanning direction is controlled on the basis of a reference signal and a detection signal. The method also includes modulating the directing of the particle beam in accordance with the reference signal, and detecting secondary particles and producing the detection signal, which represents an intensity of the detected secondary particles. Controlling the movement of the location of incidence of the particle beam along the sub-scanning direction is implemented using the principle of homodyne detection.

The present invention enlarges a range of movement of field of view by beam deflection with a simple deflector configuration and suppresses deterioration of a signal electron detection rate caused by the beam deflection. A scanning electron microscope according to the present invention is provided with a first deflection field setting module that sets plural deflectors to move a scanning area on a specimen by a primary electron beam to a position deviated from an axis extended from an electron source toward the center of an objective lens and a second deflection field setting module that sets the plural deflectors so that trajectories of signal electrons are corrected without changing the scanning area set by the first deflection field setting module. The control unit controls the plural deflectors by adding a setting value set by the second deflection field setting module to a setting value set by the first deflection field setting module.

A charged particle beam device includes an electron source which generates an electron beam, an objective lens which is applied with a coil current to converge the electron beam on a sample, a control unit which controls the current to be applied to the objective lens, a hysteresis characteristic storage unit which stores hysteresis characteristic information of the objective lens, a history information storage unit which stores history information related to the coil current, and an estimation unit which estimates a magnetic field generated by the objective lens on the basis of the coil current, the history information, and the hysteresis characteristic information.

The present invention relates to a deflection scanning device with a multi-phase winding and a deflection scanning system. The deflection scanning device is of an axisymmetric structure, and comprises a ferromagnetic frame and a deflection scanning winding, wherein the inner side of the ferromagnetic frame is longitudinally provided with 2aw wire slots equally distributed along the circumference; and the deflection scanning winding comprises a w-phase winding, wherein the axis of the each phase winding is symmetrically distributed. The deflection scanning system comprises a deflection scanning device, a drive power supply unit and, a central, control unit. The deflection scanning device of the present invention can improve the uniformity of the magnetic induction intensity in the charged particle beam channel, and then reduce the defocusing effect and improve the scanning accuracy.

A multi-beam charged particle inspection system and a method of operating a multi-beam charged particle inspection system for wafer inspection with high throughput and with high resolution and high reliability comprise a mechanism for reduction and compensation of a scanning induced aberration, such as a scanning distortion of a collective multi-beam raster scanner for beamlets propagating at an angle with respect to the optical axis of the multi-beam charged particle inspection system.

A charged particle beam writing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes an electrode configured to deflect a charged particle beam, an amplifier configured to apply a deflection potential to the electrode, a diagnostic circuit configured to diagnose the amplifier, a switching circuit arranged between an output of the amplifier and the electrode, and configured to switch the output of the amplifier between the electrode and the diagnostic circuit, an electron optical system configured to irradiate a target object with the charged particle beam deflected by being applied with the deflection potential by the amplifier, a column configured to include therein the electrode and the electron optical system, a first coaxial cable configured to connect an output side of the amplifier with the switching circuit, a second coaxial cable configured to connect the electrode with the switching circuit, a third coaxial cable configured to connect the output side of the amplifier with the diagnostic circuit, and a resistance configured to connect, parallelly to the switching circuit, an inner conductor of the first coaxial cable with an inner conductor of the second coaxial cable.

Provided is a charged particle beam device to enable determination of a noise source of a charged particle beam device that can cause a noise frequency component superimposed on a measurement image. The charged particle beam device includes a unit that extracts information regarding a noise source. The unit that extracts information regarding a noise source includes: a control signal monitoring unit that observes a control signal of a control unit which controls an electron optical system of the charged particle beam device and outputs the observed signal; a first frequency conversion processing unit that executes frequency conversion processing on the signal output from the control signal monitoring unit; a second frequency conversion processing unit that executes frequency conversion processing on an image signal output from a detector of the electron optical system; and a frequency analysis and comparison processing unit that receives an output signal of the first frequency conversion processing unit and an image signal of the second frequency conversion processing unit, and associates a peak frequency of a superimposed noise of the image signal with a noise source of the control unit which generates a noise having a peak frequency corresponding to the peak frequency of the superimposed noise within the image signal.

With strength of an objective lens set to first strength, a first scanned image of a sample is produced. The strength of the objective lens is set to second strength. A rotation amount difference of a charged particle beam between the case where the strength is set to the first strength and the case where the strength is set to the second strength is specified. At the second strength, with a scanner controlled such that the rotation for canceling the rotation amount difference is supplied to the charged particle beam, a second scanned image of the sample is produced. Based on a relative positional relationship between the first and second scanned images, a deflector is controlled such that positions of the first and second scanned images coincide with each other.

A processing apparatus and a processing method are provided, which use a charged particle beam device that achieves defection of secondary electrons/reflected electrons at a large angle and cancels out noises of an electromagnetic deflector and an electrostatic deflector to suppress a position shift of a primary electron beam caused by circuit noises of a primary beam/secondary beam separation circuit. In the charged particle beam device that includes an electronic optical system radiating a concentrated electron beam onto a sample placed on a stage to perform scanning and captures an image of the sample, a reference signal and a signal generation unit of a voltage-source control signal applied to the electrostatic deflector generating the electrostatic deflector and a reference signal and a signal generation unit of a current-source control signal applied to the electromagnetic deflector generating a magnetic field are made common in an overlapping-electromagnetic-deflector control unit that controls a path of the secondary electrons/reflected electrons incident on a detector, and frequency characteristics and phase characteristics of the voltage control signal are coincident with those of the current-source control signal.

A method of using a Charged Particle Microscope, comprising: A specimen holder, for holding a specimen; A source, for producing an irradiating beam of charged particles; An illuminator, for directing said beam so as to irradiate the specimen; A detector, for detecting a flux of emergent radiation emanating from the specimen in response to said irradiation,
additionally comprising the following steps: In said illuminator, providing an aperture plate comprising an array of apertures; Using a deflecting device to scan said beam across said array, thereby alternatingly interrupting and transmitting the beam so as to produce a train of beam pulses; Irradiating said specimen with said train of pulses, and using said detector to perform positionally resolved (temporally discriminated) detection of the attendant emergent radiation.