A system for imaging a sample through a protective pellicle is disclosed. The system includes an electron beam source configured to generate an electron beam and a sample stage configured to secure a sample and a pellicle, wherein the pellicle is disposed above the sample. The system also includes an electron-optical column including a set of electron-optical elements to direct at least a portion of the electron beam through the pellicle and onto a portion of the sample. In addition, the system includes a detector assembly positioned above the pellicle and configured to detect electrons emanating from the surface of the sample.

An average mass, an average density, and an average atomic number for a plurality of elements which form a specimen are calculated. A characteristic X-ray generation depth is calculated based on the average values and a minimum excitation energy of an element of interest. When an illumination condition is set, a reference image including a figure indicating a characteristic X-ray generation range, a numerical value indicating the characteristic X-ray generation depth, or the like, is displayed.

The present invention provides: a scintillator which is reduced in the intensity of the afterglow, while having increased luminous intensity; and a charged particle radiation apparatus. A scintillator according to the present invention is characterized in that: a base material, a buffer layer, a light emitting part and a first conductive layer are sequentially stacked in this order; the light emitting part contains one or more elements that are selected from the group consisting of Ga, Zn, In, Al, Cd, Mg, Ca and Sr; and a second conductive layer is provided between the base material and the light emitting part.

The invention relates to system and method of inspecting a specimen with a plurality of charged particle beamlets. The method comprises the steps of providing a specimen, providing a plurality of charged particle beamlets and focusing said plurality of charged particle beamlets onto said specimen, and detecting a flux of radiation emanating from the specimen in response to said irradiation by said plurality of charged particle beamlets.

A system for performing surface analysis on a material, includes a pulsed electron source that forms a monochromatic beam of incident electrons; means for conveying the incident electrons to the surface of a sample of material, so as to form backscattered electrons, and the backscattered electrons to detecting means, the conveying means comprising at least one electron optical system; means for detecting the backscattered electrons; the pulsed electron source comprising: a source of atoms; a continuous-wave laser beam configured to form a laser excitation zone able to excite the atoms to Rydberg states; a pulsed electric field on either side of the laser excitation zone, the pulsed electric field being configured to ionize at least the excited atoms and to form a monochromatic beam of electrons.

A charged particle beam device includes: a charged particle beam source configured to generate a charged particle beam with which a sample is irradiated; a charged particle detection unit configured to detect a charged particle generated when the sample is irradiated with the charged particle beam; an intensity data generation unit configured to generate intensity data of the charged particle detected by the charged particle detection unit; a pulse-height value data generation unit configured to generate pulse-height value data of the charged particle detected by the charged particle detection unit; and an output unit configured to output a first image of the sample based on the intensity data and a second image of the sample based on the pulse-height value data.

A method, a non-transitory computer readable medium and a three-dimensional evaluation system for providing three dimensional information regarding structural elements of a specimen. The method can include illuminating the structural elements with electron beams of different incidence angles, where the electron beams pass through the structural elements and the structural elements are of nanometric dimensions; detecting forward scattered electrons that are scattered from the structural elements to provide detected forward scattered electrons; and generating the three dimensional information regarding structural elements based at least on the detected forward scattered electrons.

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.

A detection module that includes a readout circuit and detector having a group of sensing elements. The group is configured to detect multiple beams. The multiple beams resulted from an illumination of a substrate, by an illumination module, by multiple electron beams. The readout circuit is configured to: (a) receive selection information for selecting multiple selected sub-groups of sensing elements; wherein the group of sensing elements comprises, in addition to the multiple selected sub-groups of sensing elements, a plurality of non-selected sensing elements; (b) ignore detection signals provided from the plurality of non-selected sensing elements, and (c) generate, for each selected sub-group of sensing elements, a sensing result to provide multiple sensing results that correspond to the multiple beams; and wherein the selected sub-groups of sensing elements are selected in response to at least one working condition of the illumination module.

An inspection apparatus according to an embodiment includes an irradiation part configured to irradiate an inspection target substrate with multiple beams including energy beams, a detector, on which a plurality of charged particle beams of charged particles released from the inspection target substrate are imaged, configured to detect each of the charged particle beams as an electrical signal, and a comparing unit configured to compare reference image data and image data that is reproduced based on the detected electrical signals and that represents patterns formed on the inspection target substrate to inspect the patterns. The detector includes a plurality of detecting elements corresponding one-to-one to the charged particle beams. The detecting elements each have a size greater than a size that covers a beam blur of each charged particle beam imaged on the detector.