A detector includes a set of sensing elements, first section circuitry communicatively coupling a first set of sensing elements to an input of first signal processing circuitry, second section circuitry communicatively coupling a second set of sensing elements to an input of second signal processing circuitry, and interconnection circuitry communicatively coupling an output of the first signal processing circuitry to an output of the second signal processing circuitry. The interconnection circuitry may include an interconnection layer having interconnection switching elements communicatively coupled to outputs of analog signal paths of the detector. Interconnection switching elements may communicatively couple the outputs of adjacent analog signal paths. The detector may also include signal processing circuitry that includes a plurality of converters. The interconnection circuitry may be configured to selectively couple outputs of the first and second signal processing circuitry to the converters.

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.

Provided is a charged particle beam apparatus which includes a charged particle source, a sample table on which a sample is placed, a charged particle beam optical system that includes an objective lens and emits a charged particle beam emitted from the charged particle source onto the sample, a plurality of detectors which detect secondary particles emitted from the sample when being irradiated with the charged particle beam, and a rotation member which magnetically, electrically, or mechanically changes a detected azimuth angle of the secondary particles emitted from the sample.

An electron beam device obtains contrast reflecting an electronic state of a sample with high sensitivity. The device includes an electron optical system which emits an electron beam to a sample and detects electrons emitted from the sample; a light pulse emission system that emits a light pulse to the sample; a synchronization processing unit that samples the emitted electrons; an image signal processing unit which forms an image by a detection signal output based upon the emitted electrons detected by the electron optical system; and a device control unit for setting a control condition of the electron optical system. The device control unit sets a sampling frequency for detection sampling of the emitted electrons to be greater than a value obtained by dividing the number of emissions of the light pulse per unit pixel time by the unit pixel time.

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.

Quantitative Secondary Electron Detection (QSED) using the array of solid state devices (SSD) based electron-counters enable critical dimension metrology measurements in materials such as semiconductors, nanomaterials, and biological samples (FIG. 3). Methods and devices effect a quantitative detection of secondary electrons with the array of solid state detectors comprising a number of solid state detectors. An array senses the number of secondary electrons with a plurality of solid state detectors, counting the number of secondary electrons with a time to digital converter circuit in counter mode.

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 object of the invention is to provide a charged particle beam apparatus capable of performing high-precision measurement even on a pattern in which a width of edges is narrow and inherent peaks of the edges cannot be easily detected. In order to achieve the above object, there is proposed a charged particle beam apparatus including an opening portion forming member having a passage opening of a charged particle beam and a detector for detecting charged particles emitted from a sample or charged particles generated by causing the charged particles to collide with the opening portion forming member, the charged particle beam apparatus including: a deflector for deflecting the charged particles emitted from the sample; and a control device for controlling the deflector, the control device performing pattern measurement with the use of a first detected signal in which a signal of one edge is emphasized relatively more than a signal of another edge among a plurality of edges on the sample and a second detected signal in which the signal of the another edge is emphasized relatively more than the signal of the one edge among the plurality of edges.

A detection circuit for accurately detecting a very small foreign material and an inspection/measurement device using the same are provided. The inspection/measurement device includes: an irradiation section that irradiates a laser beam to a surface of a specimen; and a detection section that detects scattered light from the surface of the specimen and generates a detection signal. The detection section includes: a photon counting sensor that outputs M output signals from photo-detecting elements of N pixels (M and N are natural numbers, and M<N); M current-voltage conversion sections that execute current-voltage conversion on the output signals of the photon counting sensor respectively; a voltage application section that applies reference voltages to the current-voltage conversion sections; and a detection signal generation section that generates a detection signal on the basis of the outputs of the current-voltage conversion sections.

A method of using a Charged Particle Microscope, comprising: A specimen holder, for holding a specimen; A source, for producing an irradiating beam of charged particles; An illuminator, for directing said beam so as to irradiate the specimen; A detector, for detecting a flux of emergent radiation emanating from the specimen in response to said irradiation,
additionally comprising the following steps: In said illuminator, providing an aperture plate comprising an array of apertures; Using a deflecting device to scan said beam across said array, thereby alternatingly interrupting and transmitting the beam so as to produce a train of beam pulses; Irradiating said specimen with said train of pulses, and using said detector to perform positionally resolved (temporally discriminated) detection of the attendant emergent radiation.