An improved apparatus and method for enhancing an image, and more particularly an apparatus and method for enhancing an image through cross-talk cancellation in a multiple charged-particle beam inspection are disclosed. An improved method for enhancing an image includes acquiring a first image signal of a plurality of image signals from a detector of a multi-beam inspection system. The first image signal corresponds to a detected signal from a first region of the detector on which electrons of a first secondary electron beam and of a second secondary electron beam are incident. The method includes reducing, from the first image signal, cross-talk contamination originating from the second secondary electron beam using a relationship between the first image signal and beam intensities associated with the first secondary electron beam and the second secondary electron beam. The method further includes generating a first image corresponding to first secondary electron beam after reduction.

A microscope system includes a microscope with at least one microscope sensor. Each microscope sensor has a measurement device for recording sample signals; an analog-to-digital converter for converting recorded sample signals to digital data; a data compression device which produces a compressed data stream from the digital data; and a data output interface, which outputs the compressed data stream and a raw data stream that comprises digital data that were not compressed. The microscope system additionally includes a user computer to which the compressed data stream is transmitted and also a data memory to which the raw data stream is transmitted. The user computer calculates real-time images from the compressed data stream and reads and processes the raw data stream from the data memory for subsequent data analysis. In addition, a method for operating such a microscope system is described.

Methods and systems for generating high resolution reconstructions of 3D samples imaged using slice and view processes where the electron interaction depth of the imaging beam is greater than slice thicknesses. Data obtained via such slice and view processes is enhanced with a depth blur reducing algorithm, that is configured to reduce depth blur caused by portions of the first data and second data that are resultant from electron interactions outside the first layer and second layer, respectively, to create enhanced first data and second enhanced data. A high-resolution 3D reconstruction of the sample is then generated using the enhanced first data and the enhanced second data. In some embodiments, the depth blur reducing algorithm may be selected from a set of such algorithms that have been individually configured for certain microscope conditions, sample conditions, or a combination thereof.

The charged particle beam irradiation apparatus includes: a focused ion beam column; an electron beam column; an electron detector; an image forming unit configured to form an observation image based on a signal output from the electron detector; and a control unit configured to repeatedly perform exposure control in which the focused ion beam column is controlled to expose a cross section of a multilayered sample toward a stacking direction with the focused ion beam, the control unit being configured to perform, every time exposure of an observation target layer at a cross section of the multilayered sample is detected in a process of repeatedly performing the exposure control, observation control in which the electron beam column is controlled to radiate the electron beam, and the image forming unit is controlled to form an observation image of the cross section of the multilayered sample.

A charged particle beam device capable of generating an image having uniform image quality in a field of view is provided. The charged particle beam device includes: a beam source configured to irradiate a sample with a charged particle beam; a diaphragm including an opening used for angle discrimination of secondary charged particles emitted from the sample; a first detector provided closer to the sample than the diaphragm, and configured to detect a part of the secondary charged particles; a second detector provided closer to the beam source than the diaphragm, and configured to detect secondary charged particles passing through the opening; an image generation unit configured to generate an image based on a first signal output from the first detector or a second signal output from the second detector; and a composite ratio calculation unit configured to calculate a composite ratio for each position in a field of view based on the first signal or the second signal with respect to a calibration sample that is a sample having a flat surface. The image generation unit generates a composite image by synthesizing the first signal and the second signal with respect to an observation sample using the composite ratio.

The present invention relates to an image generation method for an objective for generating an image corresponding to a multi-frame image from image signals obtained by scanning a small number of frames are proposed. To achieve the above objective, there is proposed a method of performing two-dimensionally scanning on an object on a sample with a beam a plurality of times, generating a first image by integrating image signals obtained by a plurality of times of scanning at a first timing among the image signals generated based on the plurality of times of the two-dimensional scanning (S103), generating a second image based on the smaller number of times of scanning than the number of times of scanning at the first timing including scanning after the first timing (S105), training a learning device by using teacher data with the second image as an input and the first image as an output (S108), and inputting input image signals obtained by the smaller number of times of scanning than the number of times of scanning at the first timing to the trained learning device to output an estimated image.

Methods and systems for generating high resolution reconstructions of 3D samples imaged using slice and view processes where the electron interaction depth of the imaging beam is greater than slice thicknesses. Data obtained via such slice and view processes is enhanced with a depth blur reducing algorithm, that is configured to reduce depth blur caused by portions of the first data and second data that are resultant from electron interactions outside the first layer and second layer, respectively, to create enhanced first data and second enhanced data. A high-resolution 3D reconstruction of the sample is then generated using the enhanced first data and the enhanced second data. In some embodiments, the depth blur reducing algorithm may be selected from a set of such algorithms that have been individually configured for certain microscope conditions, sample conditions, or a combination thereof.

Apparatuses and methods for aligning lamella to charged particle beams based on a volume reconstruction are disclosed herein. An example method at least includes forming a reconstructed volume of a portion of a sample, the sample including a plurality of structures, and the reconstructed volume including a portion of the plurality of structures, performing, over a range of angles, a mathematical transform on each plane of a plurality of planes of the reconstructed volume, and based on the mathematical transform on each plane of the plurality of planes, determining a target orientation of the sample within the range of angles, wherein the target orientation aligns the plurality of structures parallel to an optical axis of a charged particle 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.

Methods and systems include acquiring instances of data relating to multiple layers of a sample obtained via slice and view imaging where the electron interaction depth of the charged particle beam during each irradiation of the sample is larger than the thickness of the first layer and/or the thickness of the second layer. A simulated model is then accessed that identifies a plurality of yield values that identify expected portions/ratios of detected emissions that are expected to be generated by material in corresponding layers/depths of the sample. The yield values are used to segregate the instances of data into component portions based on the particular layer of the sample in which the structures expected to have generated the associated emissions are located. The component portions are then used to create reconstructions of individual layers and/or 3D reconstructions of the sample with reduced depth blur.