The disclosure relates to a method of imaging a specimen using a transmission charged particle microscope, said method comprising providing a specimen, and providing a charged particle beam and directing said charged particle beam onto said specimen for generating a flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen. The method comprises the step of generating and recording a first energy filtered flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen, wherein said first energy filtered flux of charged particles substantially consists of non-scattered and elastically scattered charged particles. The method as disclosed herein comprises the further step of generating and recording a second energy filtered flux of charged particles transmitted through the specimen, wherein said second energy filtered flux of charged particles substantially consists of inelastically scattered charged particles. Said first and second recorded energy filtered flux are then used for imaging said specimen with increased contrast.

When a high-performance retarding voltage applying power supply cannot be employed in terms of costs or device miniaturization, it is difficult to sufficiently adjust focus in a high acceleration region within a range of changing an applied voltage, and identify a point at which a focus evaluation value is maximum. To address the above problems, a scanning electron microscope is provided including: an objective lens configured to converge an electron beam emitted from an electron source; a current source configured to supply an excitation current to the objective lens; a negative-voltage applying power supply configured to form a decelerating electric field of the electron beam on a sample; a detector configured to detect charged particles generated when the electron beam is emitted to the sample; and a control device configured to calculate a focus evaluation value from an image formed according to an output of the detector. The control device calculates a focus evaluation value when an applied voltage is changed, determines whether to increase or decrease an excitation current according to an increase or a decrease of the focus evaluation value, and supplies the excitation current based on a result of the determination.

A method and system for processing a diffraction pattern image obtained in an electron microscope are disclosed. The method comprises, according to a first set of microscope conditions, causing an electron beam to impinge upon a calibration specimen so as to cause resulting electrons to be emitted therefrom and monitoring the resulting electrons using a detector device so as to obtain a calibration image comprising a plurality of pixels having values, the first set of microscope conditions being configured such that the calibration image includes substantially no electron diffraction pattern; obtaining, from the calibration image, a gain variation image comprising a plurality of pixels, each having a value representing relative detector device gain for a corresponding pixel of the calibration image; according to a second set of microscope conditions, causing an electron beam to impinge upon a target specimen so as to cause resulting electrons to be emitted therefrom and monitoring the resulting electrons using the detector device so as to obtain a target image comprising a plurality of pixels having values, the second set of microscope conditions being configured such that the target image includes an electron diffraction pattern; and for each pixel of the target image, removing from the pixel value, in accordance with the value of the corresponding pixel of the gain variation image, the contribution to the pixel value of the relative detector device gain, so as to obtain a gain variation-corrected image.

Even when the amount of overlay deviation between patterns located in different layers is large, correct measurement of the amount of overlay deviation is stably performed. The charged particle beam device includes a charged particle beam irradiation unit that irradiates a sample with a charged particle beam, a first detection unit that detects secondary electrons from the sample, a second detection unit that detects backscattered electrons from the sample, and an image processing unit that generates a first image including an image of a first pattern located on the surface of the sample based on an output of the first detection unit, and generates a second image including an image of a second pattern located in a lower layer than the surface of the sample based on an output of the second detection unit. A control unit adjusts the position of a measurement area in the first image based on a first template image for the first image, and adjusts the position of a measurement area in the second image based on a second template image for the second image.

According to an embodiment, a method for automated critical dimension measurement on a substrate for display manufacturing is provided. The method includes scanning a first field of view having a first size with a charged particle beam to obtain a first image having a first resolution of a first portion of the substrate for display manufacturing; determining a pattern within the first image, the pattern having a first position; scanning a second field of view with the charged particle beam to obtain a second image of a second portion of the substrate, the second field of view has a second size smaller than the first size and has a second position provided relative to the first position, the second image has a second resolution higher than the first resolution; and determining a critical dimension of a structure provided on the substrate from the second image.

Dynamic band contrast image (DBCI) is constructed with scattering patterns acquired at multiple scanning locations of a sample using a charged particle beam. Each pixel of the DBCI is generated by integrating the corresponding scattering pattern along a diffraction band. The DBCI includes charged particle channeling condition and can be used for detecting sample defects.

As a technology for an observation device and an inspection device, a technology capable of reducing a work effort related to generation of a recipe including alignment information is provided. An observation device 1 includes an observation unit 103 that obtains an image for observing a sample 101 on a stage 102. A computer system 2 of the observation device 1 acquires the image from the observation unit 103, specifies a period of a pattern-formed unit region repeatedly formed on a surface of the sample 101 from the image, and generates a recipe including observation or inspection alignment positions of the sample 101 using the specified period.

A method is disclosed. The method includes receiving measured linescan information describing a pattern structure of a feature, applying the received measured linescan information to an inverse linescan model that relates measured linescan information to feature geometry information, identifying, based at least in part on the applying the received measured linescan model to the inverse linescan model, feature geometry information that describes a feature that would produce a linescan corresponding to the received measured linescan information, determining, at least in part using the inverse linescan model, feature edge positions of the identified feature, and analyzing the feature edge positions to detect the presence or absence of defects in the pattern structure.

In the present invention, an electro-optical condition generation unit includes: a condition setting unit that sets, as a plurality of electro-optical conditions, a plurality of electro-optical conditions in which the combinations of the aperture angle and the focal-point height for an electron beam are different; an index calculating unit that determines a measurement-performance index in the electro-optical conditions set by the condition setting unit; and a condition deriving unit that derives an electro-optical condition, including an aperture angle and a focal-point height, so that the measurement-performance index determined by the index calculating unit becomes a prescribed value.

Methods and systems for creating TEM lamella using image restoration algorithms for low keV FIB images are disclosed. An example method includes irradiating a sample with an ion beam at low keV settings, generating a low keV ion beam image of the sample based on emissions resultant from irradiation by the ion beam, and then applying an image restoration model to the low keV ion beam image of the sample to generate a restored image. The sample is then localized within the restored image, and a low keV milling of the sample is performed with the ion beam based on the localized sample within the restored image.