A method for positioning a movable object in a sample chamber of a particle beam microscope is carried out with the aid of a flexible particle beam barrier. The particle beam microscope comprises at least one particle beam column for producing a beam of charged particles, and a sample chamber, a detector for detecting interaction signals and a control and evaluation unit. In the method, initially an object is provided in the sample chamber. Next, a barrier region is defined, which is subsequently scanned with the beam of charged particles. The interaction signals produced during the scan are detected. The object is moved towards the barrier region, wherein the detected interaction signals are monitored and signal changes are registered, with the result that it is possible to detect when the object moves into the barrier region or leaves the barrier region.

Even if a generated wide-field image includes residual local misalignment, this charged particle microscope device can prompt for user input to correct such local misalignment, and can regenerate, on the basis of the user input, a wide-field image that includes little misalignment even in local areas of the overlap regions thereof. A charged particle microscope according to the present invention captures a plurality of images in such a way that each captured image has overlap regions that are to be overlapped with the overlap regions of captured images adjacent to that captured image, wherein an image processing unit: sets a pair of corresponding points in respective overlap regions of each two adjacent captured images; sets predetermined constraint conditions for each captured image; calculates the amounts of misalignment between the plurality of captured images on the basis of the set pairs of corresponding points and the set constraint conditions; connects the plurality of captured images to one another after correcting the misalignment between these captured images on the basis of the calculated amounts of misalignment, thereby generating a single wide-field image; calculates, for each of a plurality of local areas set in the overlap regions of each two adjacent captured images, a degree of reliability for the connection between these captured images; and notifies a user of either each found low reliability local area or the overlap region including that low reliability local area, as well as the set pairs of corresponding points and the set constraint conditions.

A detection and correction method for an electron beam system are provided. The method includes emitting an electron beam towards a specimen; modulating a beam current of the electron beam to obtain a beam signal. The method further includes detecting, using an electron detector, secondary and/or backscattered electrons emitted by the specimen to obtain electron data, wherein the electron data defines a detection signal. The method further includes determining, using a processor, a phase shift between the beam signal and the detection signal. The method further includes filtering, using the processor, the detection signal based on the phase shift.

In one embodiment, a method includes generating a model trained to predict a low-probability stochastic defect, calibrating, using unbiased measurement data, the model to a specific lithography process, patterning process, or both to generate a calibrated model, using the calibrated model to predict the low-probability stochastic defect; and modifying, based on the low-probability stochastic defect, a variable, parameter, setting, or some combination of a manufacturing process of a device.

A method of setting a parameter of a charged particle beam device, for shortening the time required to adjust an ABCC parameter. An inverse conversion processing unit generates a simulator input signal corresponding to an electron emitted from a sample. A simulation detector uses an arithmetic model that simulates a detector and executes arithmetic processing on the simulator input signal in a state in which characteristic information is reflected in an arithmetic parameter. A simulated image conversion unit executes arithmetic processing corresponding to an image conversion unit and converts a signal from the simulation detector into a simulated image. An ABCC search unit searches for an ABCC parameter with respect to the simulation detector so that an evaluation value obtained from the simulated image becomes a specified reference value, and outputs the ABCC parameter as a search result to an ABCC control unit of the actual machine.

A charged particle beam device 1 includes: a plurality of detectors 7 for detecting a signal particle 9 emitted from a sample 8 irradiated with a charged particle beam 3 and converting the detected signal particle 9 into an output electrical signal 17; an energy discriminator 14 provided for each detector 7 and configured to discriminate the output electrical signal 17 according to energy of the signal particle 9; a discrimination control block 21 for setting an energy discrimination condition of each of the energy discriminators 14; and an image calculation block 22 for generating an image based on the discriminated electrical signal. The discrimination control block 21 sets energy discrimination conditions different from each other among the plurality of energy discriminators 14.

The invention relates to a method for electron microscopy. The method comprises providing an electron microscope, generating an electron beam and an image beam, adjusting one of the beam and of the beam and the image beam to reduce off-axial aberrations and correcting a diffraction pattern of the resulting modified beam. The invention also relates to a method for reducing throughput time in a sample image acquisition session in transmission electron microscopy. The method comprises providing an electron microscope, generating a beam and an image beam, adjusting one of the two to reduce off-axial aberrations and filtering the resulting modified image beam. The invention further relates to an electron microscope and to a non-transient computer-readable medium with a computer program for carrying out the methods.

The present disclosure is related to a Schottky thermal field (TFE) source for emitting an electron beam. Electron optics can adjust a shape of the electron beam before the electron beam impacts a scintillator screen. Thereafter, the scintillator screen generates an emission image in the form of light. An emission image can be adjusted and captured by a camera sensor in a camera at a desired magnification to create a final image of the Schottky TFE source's tip. The final image can be displayed and analyzed to for defects.

A wafer inspection system is disclosed. According to certain embodiments, the system includes an electron detector that includes circuitry to detect secondary electrons or backscattered electrons (SE/BSE) emitted from a wafer. The electron beam system also includes a current detector that includes circuitry to detect an electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) from the wafer. The electron beam system further includes a controller having one or more processors and a memory, the controller including circuitry to: acquire data regarding the SE/BSE; acquire data regarding the EBIC; and determine structural information of the wafer based on an evaluation of the SE/BSE data and the EBIC data.

A method of operating a particle beam device for imaging, analyzing and/or processing an object may be carried out, for example, by a particle beam device. The method may include: identifying at least one region of interest on the object; defining: (i) an analyzing sequence for analyzing the object, (ii) a processing sequence for processing the object by deformation and (iii) an adapting sequence for adapting the at least one region of interest depending on the processing sequence and/or on the analyzing sequence; processing the object by deformation according to the processing sequence and/or analyzing the object according to the analyzing sequence; adapting the at least one region of interest according to the adapting sequence; and after or while adapting the at least one region of interest, imaging and/or analyzing the at least one region of interest using a primary particle beam being generated by a particle beam generator.