In one embodiment, an electron beam inspection apparatus includes an optical system irradiating a substrate with primary electron beams, a beam separator separating, from the primary electron beams, secondary electron beams emitted as a result of irradiating the substrate with the primary electron beams, a detector detecting the secondary electron beams separated, a movable stage on which the substrate is placed, a support base supporting the substrate on the stage, and an applying unit applying a first voltage to the substrate. The support base includes a plurality of support pins that support the substrate from below. The support pins each include a columnar insulator and a metal film disposed in the insulator. A second voltage is applied to the metal film.

Disclosed is an abnormality determination system for plasma treatment, including: a plasma treatment apparatus capable of treating, based on a recipe, a plurality of workpieces at a time; a sensor that obtains at least one monitoring data relating to the workpieces and the plasma treatment apparatus that is performing plasma treatment; a storage unit that stores a threshold that is set according to a first treatment mode including the number and the type of the workpieces; and a determination unit that determines, based on the monitoring data and the threshold, whether or not there is an abnormality in the plasma treatment.

A substrate treating apparatus includes a housing, treating space and support unit to support a substrate, dielectric plate, gas supply unit, and plasma source to generate a plasma and including a top edge electrode above the edge region supported by the support unit and bottom edge electrode below the edge region supported by the support unit, which includes a support plate having an inner space and vacuum hole that communicates with the inner space and sucking the substrate on the top surface. A lift pin assembly can transfer the substrate between an outside transfer unit and the support plate. A decompression unit can apply negative pressure to the inner space. The lift pin assembly includes a base plate and through hole penetrating the base plate to provide negative pressure in a region under the base plate to a region over the base plate. Lift pins protrude from the base plate and support a bottom substrate surface. A driver can lift/lower the base plate within the inner space.

A manufacturing method of a semiconductor device includes the steps of: (a) placing a semiconductor wafer over a stage provided in a chamber, the pressure in the inside of which is reduced by vacuum pumping; and (b) after the step (a), forming plasma in the chamber in a state where the semiconductor wafer is adsorbed and held by the stage, so that desired etching processing is performed on the semiconductor wafer. Herein, before the step (a), O.sub.2 gas, negative gas having an electronegativity higher than that of nitrogen gas, is introduced into the chamber to form O.sub.2 plasma in the chamber, thereby allowing the charges remaining over the stage to be eliminated.

A method is provided for forming a three-dimensional article through successively depositing individual layers of powder material that are fused together so as to form the article, the method comprising the steps of: providing at least one electron beam source emitting an electron beam for at least one of heating or fusing the powder material, where the electron beam source comprises a cathode, an anode, and a Wehnelt cup between the cathode and anode; providing a guard ring between the Wehnelt cup and the anode and in close proximity to the Wehnelt cup, where the guard ring is having an aperture which is larger than an aperture of the Wehnelt cup; protecting the cathode and/or the Wehnelt cup against vacuum arc discharge energy currents when forming the three-dimensional article by providing the guard ring with a higher negative potential than the Wehnelt cup and cathode.

In an ion implantation apparatus, an interruption member interrupts an ion beam B in the middle of a beam line. A plasma shower device is provided at the downstream side of the interruption member in the beam line. A control unit causes the interruption member to interrupt the ion beam B during an ignition start period of the plasma shower device. The interruption member may be provided at the upstream side of at least one high-voltage electric field type electrode in the beam line. A gas supply unit may supply a source gas to the plasma shower device. The control unit may start the supply of the source gas from the gas supply unit after the ion beam B is interrupted by the interruption member.

Embodiments relate to a grid short clearing system is provided for gridded ion beam sources used in industrial applications for materials processing systems that reduces grid damage during operation. In various embodiments, the ion source is coupled to a process chamber and a grid short clearing system includes methods for supplying a gas to the process chamber and setting the gas pressure to a predetermined gas pressure in the range between 50 to 750 Torr, applying an electrical potential difference between each adjacent pair of grids using a current-limited power supply, and detecting whether or not the grid shorts are cleared. The electrical potential difference between the grids is at least 10% lower than the DC electrical breakdown voltage between the grids with no contaminants.

A plasma processing device includes: a chamber; a flat-plate-shaped first electrode; a first high frequency power supply; a helical second electrode disposed outside the chamber and disposed to face the first electrode with a quartz plate forming an upper lid of the chamber therebetween; and a gas introducing unit, in which a second high frequency power supply and a third high frequency power supply are configured to be electrically connected to the second electrode, the second high frequency power supply being configured to apply an AC voltage of a second frequency to the second electrode, the third high frequency power supply being configured to apply an AC voltage of a third frequency to the second electrode, and the third frequency being higher than the second frequency; and two types of AC voltages are configured to be simultaneously applied.

A high voltage inspection system that includes a vacuum chamber; electron optics that is configured to direct an electron beam towards an upper surface of a substrate; a substrate support module that comprises a chuck and a housing; wherein the chuck is configured to support a substrate; wherein the housing is configured to surround the substrate without masking the electron beam, when the substrate is positioned on the chuck during a first operational mode of the high voltage inspection system; and wherein the substrate, the chuck and the housing are configured to (a) receive a high voltage bias signal of a high voltage level that exceeds ten thousand volts, and (b) to maintain at substantially the high voltage level during the first operational mode of the high voltage inspection system.

An arc treatment device includes an arc detector operable to detect whether an arc is present in a plasma chamber, an arc energy determiner operable to determine an arc energy value based on an energy supplied to the plasma chamber while the arc is present in the plasma chamber, and a break time determiner operable to determine a break time based on the determined arc energy value.