An object of the present disclosure is to provide a charged particle beam device that can suppress an influence to a device generated according to the preliminary exhaust. In order to achieve the object, suggested is a charged particle beam device including a vacuum sample chamber that maintains an atmosphere around a sample to be irradiated with a charged particle beam in a vacuum state; and a preliminary exhaust chamber to which a vacuum pump for vacuuming an atmosphere of the sample introduced into the vacuum sample chamber is connected, in which the vacuum sample chamber is a box-shaped body including a top plate, and a portion between the top plate and a side wall of the box-shaped body positioned below the top plate includes a portion in which the top plate and the side wall are not in contact with each other.

There is provided a transport device capable of reducing drifting of a sample. The transport device delivers a cartridge to a sample holder in a charged particle beam system. The transport device has a mounting portion to which the cartridge can be detachably mounted, a shaft portion providing support of the mounting portion, a resilient member connecting together the shaft portion and the mounting portion, and a drive mechanism for moving the mounting portion.

There is provided a sample holder which is for use in a charged particle beam system and which can prevent damage to a sample stage during transportation of a cartridge. The sample holder includes: the cartridge having the sample stage for holding a sample therein; and a holder base having a mounting portion to which the cartridge can be mounted. The cartridge has: a tilt mechanism for tilting the sample stage; and a lock lever which, when the cartridge has been taken out from the mounting portion, makes contact with the sample stage and limits tilt of the stage.

There is provided a sample holder capable of reducing positional deviation of a cartridge in the heightwise direction of a sample. The sample holder includes the cartridge and a holder base having a mounting portion for the cartridge. The mounting portion includes a placement surface, a first tilted surface, and a rotary drive mechanism for imparting a rotary force to the cartridge. The cartridge includes an opposing first tilted surface opposite to the first tilted surface of the mounting portion. As the rotary drive mechanism imparts the rotary force to the cartridge, the first tilted surface of the cartridge is pressed against the first tilted surface of the mounting portion, whereby the cartridge is pressed against the placement surface.

Provided is a charged particle beam device capable of making a time lag as small as possible when transporting a succeeding wafer from an FOUP to an SC in parallel with returning a preceding wafer from a sample chamber to the FOUP. The charged particle beam device according to the disclosure predicts a completion time point at which a recipe of the preceding wafer is ended, and sets a time point at which the succeeding wafer is started to be taken out from the FOUP so that a timing at which the succeeding wafer is taken out from the FOUP to a load lock chamber and vacuum evacuation of the load lock chamber is completed matches the completion time point.

A device for sealing a vacuum chamber is described, the vacuum chamber providing a first volume. The device includes an intermediate volume providing a fluid communication between the first volume and a second volume, a first seal for sealing a first conduit associated with the first volume and sealing the first volume from the intermediate volume, a second seal for sealing a second conduit associated with the second volume and sealing the second volume from the intermediate volume, and a third conduit providing a first fluid path to the intermediate volume.

A charged particle apparatus includes: a specimen chamber which is maintained at vacuum and in which a specimen is disposed; a preliminary exhaust chamber that is connected to the specimen chamber via a vacuum gate valve; an exhaust device that exhausts the preliminary exhaust chamber; charged particle beam source an optical system; a detector; a transporting device that transports the specimen from the preliminary exhaust chamber to the specimen chamber; and a control unit. The control unit performs: adjustment processing in which at least one of the optical system and the detector is adjusted in a state where the specimen is housed in the preliminary exhaust chamber; and transporting processing which is performed after the adjustment processing and in which the vacuum gate valve is opened and the transporting device transports the specimen to the specimen chamber.

A sample insertion system (10) comprises a channel (12), a sealing element (16) and a vacuum device (18). The channel (12) has a port (14) connectable to a chamber such as a cryostat. The vacuum device (18) may decrease a pressure in the channel (12). The sealing element (16) is arranged in the channel (12) and seals off a volume (V) from the channel. The sealing element (16) comprises a carrier member to carry a sample. The sealing element (16) is configured to move the carrier member towards the port (14) in response to the pressure in the channel (12) decreasing below a pressure in the volume (V) sealed-off by the sealing element (16). This may help reducing an access time when inserting the sample into the chamber.

There is provided a charged particle beam system capable of determining the type of each cartridge precisely. An electron microscope that embodies the charged particle beam system includes a discriminator for determining the type of each cartridge based on the range or distance measured by a laser range finder. Plural cartridges are received in a magazine. The laser range finder measures the range to a selected one of the plural cartridges which is placed in a measurement position. A first cartridge of a first type included in the plural cartridges has a first measurement surface at a first distance to the laser range finder when placed in the measurement position. A second cartridge of a second type has a second measurement surface at a second range to the laser range finder when placed in the measurement position.

An automated grid handling apparatus for an electron microscope including a transport module having a multistage shuttle comprising a first shuttle stage having a single degree of freedom of motion and a second shuttle stage having a single degree of freedom of motion independent of the first stage, an end effector connected to at least one of the first and second shuttle stages, the end effector configured to hold a grid carrier and transport the grid carrier into and out of an electron microscope through a transport interface that communicates with a multi-axis positioning stage port of the microscope, the end effector having a range of motion defined by the first and second stage degrees of freedom of motions and the multi-axis positioning stage internal to the electron microscope, and an automated loading module connected to the frame and communicating with the transport module, the automated loading module including a load port module through which grids are loaded into the automated loading and transport modules.