A multiple-electron-beam-image acquisition apparatus includes an electromagnetic lens to receive and refract multiple electron beams, an aberration corrector, disposed in a magnetic field of the electromagnetic lens, to correct aberration of the multiple electron beams, an aperture-substrate, disposed movably at the upstream of the aberration corrector with respect to an advancing direction of the multiple electron beams, to selectively make an individual beam of the multiple electron beams pass therethrough independently, a movable stage to dispose thereon the aberration corrector, a stage control circuit, using an image caused by the individual beam selectively made to pass, to move the stage to align the position of the aberration corrector to the multiple electron beams having been relatively aligned with the electromagnetic lens, and a detector to detect multiple secondary electron beams emitted because the target object surface is irradiated with multiple electron beams having passed through the aberration corrector.

A multi-beam apparatus for observing a sample with high resolution and high throughput is proposed. In the apparatus, a source-conversion unit forms plural and parallel images of one single electron source by deflecting plural beamlets of a parallel primary-electron beam therefrom, and one objective lens focuses the plural deflected beamlets onto a sample surface and forms plural probe spots thereon. A movable condenser lens is used to collimate the primary-electron beam and vary the currents of the plural probe spots, a pre-beamlet-forming means weakens the Coulomb effect of the primary-electron beam, and the source-conversion unit minimizes the sizes of the plural probe spots by minimizing and compensating the off-axis aberrations of the objective lens and condenser lens.

Provided is a charged particle beam apparatus including: an XY stage on which a sample is placed; a charged particle beam source which irradiates the sample with a charged particle beam; a detector which detects charged particles emitted from the sample upon the irradiation with the charged particle beam; an image generator which generates an SEM image of the sample based on a detection signal output by the detector; and a controller configured to set control parameters based on a movement starting point and a movement ending point of the XY stage and control a driving unit for moving the XY stage according to the control parameters.

A method of determining a distortion of a field of view of a scanning electron microscope is described. The method may include: providing a sample including substantially parallel lines extending in a first direction; performing scans across the field of view of the sample along respective scan-trajectories extending in a scan direction; the scan direction being substantially perpendicular to the first direction; detecting a response signal of the sample caused by the scanning of the sample; determining a distance between a first line segment of a line and a second line segment of the line, whereby each of the first line segment and the second line segment are crossed by scan trajectories, based on the response signal; performing the previous step for multiple locations within the field of view; and determining the distortion across the field of view, based on the determined distances at the multiple locations.

A method for determining and correcting an image recording aberration of an image recording device includes recording a first image using an image recording device. The first image represents a first region of an object. The method also includes recording second images using the image recording device. The second images represent mutually different partial regions of the first region. Each partial region is smaller than the first region. The method further includes determining at least one value of an image recording aberration of the image recording device on the basis of the first image and the second images. Related devices are disclosed.

A system and method is provided for rapidly collecting high quality images of a specimen through controlling a re-focusable beam of an electron microscope. An intelligent acquisition system instructs the electron microscope to perform an initial low-resolution scan of a sample. A low-resolution image of the sample is received by the intelligent acquisition system as scanned image information from the electron microscope. The intelligent acquisition system then determines regions of interest within the low-resolution image and instructs the electron microscope to perform a high-resolution scan of the sample, only in areas of the sample corresponding to the determined regions of interest or portions of the determined regions of interest, so that other regions within the sample are not scanned at high-resolution. The intelligent acquisition system then reconstructs an image using the collected high-resolution scan pixels and pixels in the received low-resolution image.

A miniature electron optical column apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus may include a set of electron-optical elements configured to direct a primary electron beam to a sample. The set of electron-optical elements may include an objective lens. The apparatus may also include a deflection sub-system. The deflection sub-system may include one or more pre-lens deflectors positioned between an electron beam source and the objective lens. The deflection sub-system may also include a post-lens deflector positioned between the objective lens and the sample. The deflection sub-system may also include a post-lens miniature optical element positioned between the objective lens and the sample.

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.

An electron-optical system for inspecting or reviewing an edge portion of a sample includes an electron beam source configured to generate one or more electron beams, a sample stage configured to secure the sample and an electron-optical column including a set of electron-optical elements configured to direct at least a portion of the one or more electron beams onto an edge portion of the sample. The system also includes a sample position reference device disposed about the sample and a guard ring device disposed between the edge of the sample and the sample position reference device to compensate for one or more fringe fields. One or more characteristics of the guard ring device are adjustable. The system also includes a detector assembly configured to detect electrons emanating from the surface of the sample.

A multiple electron beam irradiation apparatus includes an electromagnetic lens configured to refract multiple electron beams incident, an aberration corrector arranged in the magnetic field of the electromagnetic lens and configured to be able to individually apply a bias potential and a deflection potential to each of the multiple electron beams, and an objective lens configured to focus the multiple electron beams, a trajectory of the each of which has been individually corrected by the bias potential and the deflection potential, onto a target object.