This substitution site measuring equipment using an electron beam analyzes, with high precision, the structure of a substitution site in a micrometer- to nanometer-order region, by reducing or vanishing the X-ray intensity of diffraction X-rays generated in a specimen. The substitution site measuring equipment measures a substitution site in a crystal by detecting, by means of an X-ray detector, X-rays generated from a specimen upon irradiation of the specimen with an electron beam. The substitution site measuring equipment is provided with: an input unit to which a crystal structure of a specimen, energy or wavelengths of X-rays to be detected, a tilt angle of the specimen, and positional information about the specimen and the X-ray detector are inputted; a diffraction X-ray incidence calculating means for calculating incidence of diffraction X-rays on the X-ray detector on the basis of parameters inputted to the input unit; a measurement condition setting means for setting a measurement condition according to the incidence of diffraction X-rays on the X-ray detector calculated by the diffraction X-ray incidence calculating means such that the diffraction X-rays are not incident on the X-ray detector; and an electron beam inclination/X-ray detection control unit that detects the X-rays in synchronization with the inclination of an electron beam.

There is provided a tilting parameters calculating device for use in a charged particle beam device for making a charged particle beam irradiated to a surface of a sample mounted on a sample stage, the tilting parameters calculating device being configured to calculate tilting parameters, the tilting parameters being input parameters to control a tilting direction and a tilting value of the sample and/or the charged particle beam, the input parameters being necessary to change an incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to the sample, the tilting parameters calculating device including a tilting parameters calculating unit for calculating the tilting parameters based on information that indicates the incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to a crystal lying at a selected position on the surface in a state where the incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to the sample is in a predetermined incident direction, the information being designated on a crystal orientation figure, which is a diagram illustrating the incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to a crystal coordinate system of the crystal.

Techniques for high throughput electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) by varying electron beam energy are provided. In one aspect, a method for ECCI of a crystalline wafer includes: placing the crystalline wafer under an electron microscope having an angle of less than 90 relative to a surface of the crystalline wafer; generating an electron beam, by the electron microscope, incident on the crystalline wafer; varying an accelerating voltage of the electron microscope to access a channeling condition of the crystalline wafer; and obtaining an image of the crystalline wafer. A system for ECCI is also provided.

The present disclosure relates to an ion beam etching (IBE) system including a plasma chamber configured to provide plasma, a screen grid, an extraction grid, an accelerator grid, and a decelerator grid. The screen grid receives a screen grid voltage to extract ions from the plasma within the plasma chamber to form an ion beam through a hole. The extraction grid receives an extraction grid voltage, where a voltage difference between the screen grid voltage and the extraction grid voltage determines an ion current density of the ion beam. The accelerator grid receives an accelerator grid voltage. A voltage difference between the extraction grid voltage and the accelerator grid voltage determines an ion beam energy for the ion beam. The IBE system can further includes a deflector system having a first deflector plate and a second deflector plate around a hole to control the direction of the ion beam.

There is provided a system and a method comprising obtaining a first (respectively second) image of an area of the semiconductor specimen acquired by an electron beam examination tool at a first (respectively second) illumination angle, determining a plurality of height values informative of a height profile of the specimen in the area, the determination comprising solving an optimization problem which comprises a plurality of functions, each function being representative of a difference between data informative of a grey level intensity at a first location in the first image and data informative of a grey level intensity at a second location in the second image, wherein, for each function, the second location is determined with respect to the first location, or conversely, when solving the optimization problem, wherein a distance between the first and the second locations depends on the height profile, and the first and second illumination angles.

A method for automatically aligning a scanning tunneling electron microscope (STEM) for acquiring precession electron diffraction (PED) mapping data includes the generation of an incident electron beam aligned with a STEM optic axis and focused on a sample region. A non-inclined signal is acquired of the spatial distribution from the sample region, by scanning the aligned incident beam across multiple discrete locations and acquiring a signal associated with each location. The method can further include the inclination of the incident electron beam to a fixed inclination angle relative to the optic axis and then acquiring an inclined signal spatial distribution from the sample region by scanning the inclined incident beam across the multiple discrete locations while applying a cyclic azimuthal scanning protocol to the inclined beam and acquiring a signal associated with each location. An azimuthal spatial alignment correction is determined by comparing the non-inclined and inclined signal spatial distributions.

A charged particle beam microscope system is operated in a transmission imaging mode. During the operation, the charged particle beam microsystem directs a charged particle beam to the sample to produce images. A time series of beam tilts is applied in a pattern to the charged particle beam directed to the sample to produce a sequence of images. At least some of the images in the sequence of images are captured while the charged particle beam is transitioning between one beam tilt in the time series of beam tilts and a sequentially adjacent beam tilt in the time series of beam tilts. The pattern is configured to induce image changes between the images in the sequence of images that are indicative of optical aberrations in the charged particle beam microscope system.

The present disclosure relates to an ion beam etching (IBE) system including a plasma chamber configured to provide plasma, a screen grid, an extraction grid, an accelerator grid, and a decelerator grid. The screen grid receives a screen grid voltage to extract ions from the plasma within the plasma chamber to form an ion beam through a hole. The extraction grid receives an extraction grid voltage, where a voltage difference between the screen grid voltage and the extraction grid voltage determines an ion current density of the ion beam. The accelerator grid receives an accelerator grid voltage. A voltage difference between the extraction grid voltage and the accelerator grid voltage determines an ion beam energy for the ion beam. The IBE system can further includes a deflector system having a first deflector plate and a second deflector plate around a hole to control the direction of the ion beam.

This substitution site measuring equipment using an electron beam analyzes, with high precision, the structure of a substitution site in a micrometer- to nanometer-order region, by reducing or vanishing the X-ray intensity of diffraction X-rays generated in a specimen. The substitution site measuring equipment measures a substitution site in a crystal by detecting, by means of an X-ray detector, X-rays generated from a specimen upon irradiation of the specimen with an electron beam. The substitution site measuring equipment is provided with: an input unit to which a crystal structure of a specimen, energy or wavelengths of X-rays to be detected, a tilt angle of the specimen, and positional information about the specimen and the X-ray detector are inputted; a diffraction X-ray incidence calculating means for calculating incidence of diffraction X-rays on the X-ray detector on the basis of parameters inputted to the input unit; a measurement condition setting means for setting a measurement condition according to the incidence of diffraction X-rays on the X-ray detector calculated by the diffraction X-ray incidence calculating means such that the diffraction X-rays are not incident on the X-ray detector; and an electron beam inclination/X-ray detection control unit that detects the X-rays in synchronization with the inclination of an electron beam.

Disclosed are various approaches for calculating crystal orientation via dark-field images from an electron microscope. In some examples, a system includes an electron microscope, at least one computing device comprising a processor and a memory, and machine-readable instructions stored in the memory. The instructions can cause the computing device to at least capture a plurality of dark-field images via the electron microscope. The computing device can calculate a crystal orientation based at least in part on data obtained from the dark-field images. The computing device can further generate an orientation map based at least in part on the crystal orientation.