Provided is a method of adjusting an electron-beam irradiated area in an electron beam irradiation apparatus that deflects an electron beam with a deflector to irradiate an object with the electron beam, the method including: emitting an electron beam while changing an irradiation position on an adjustment plate by controlling the deflector in accordance with an electron beam irradiation recipe, the adjustment plate detecting a current corresponding to the emitted electron beam; acquiring a current value detected from the adjustment plate; forming image data corresponding to the acquired current value; determining whether the electron-beam irradiated area is appropriate based on the formed image data; and updating the electron beam irradiation recipe when the electron-beam irradiated area is determined not to be appropriate.

An ion implantation apparatus includes an ion source that is capable of generating a calibration ion beam including a multiply charged ion which has a known energy corresponding to an extraction voltage, an upstream beamline that includes amass analyzing magnet and a high energy multistage linear acceleration unit, an energy analyzing magnet, a beam energy measuring device that measures an energy of the calibration ion beam downstream of the energy analyzing magnet, and a calibration sequence unit that produces an energy calibration table representing a correspondence relation between the known energy and the energy of the calibration ion beam measured by the beam energy measuring device. An upstream beamline pressure is adjusted to a first pressure during an ion implantation process, and is adjusted to a second pressure higher than the first pressure while the energy calibration table is produced.

A pattern inspection method includes scanning a plurality of patterns on a substrate with N charged particle beams and detecting secondary electrons respectively generated from each of the plurality of patterns to acquire N SEM images, determining a distribution of gray level values for each of the acquired N SEM images, selecting M gray levels from the distributions of the N gray levels, selecting a first gray level value from a first one of the M distributions, and comparing it to the corresponding first gray level value of the of the other M1 distributions, and determining that an abnormality has occurred in the charged particle beam corresponding to the first one of the M distributions when the difference between the first value of the first one of the M distributions and the other M1 distributions is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

An improved method of performing a self-diagnosis of a charged particle inspection system is disclosed. An improved method comprises triggering a self-diagnosis based on output data of the charged particle inspection system; in response to the triggering of the self-diagnosis, receiving diagnostic data of a sub-system of the charged particle inspection system; identifying an issue associated with the output data based on the diagnostic data of the sub-system; and generating a control signal to adjust an operation parameter of the sub-system according to the identified issue.

An individual beam detector for multiple beams includes a thin film in which a passage hole smaller than a pitch between beams of multiple beams and larger than the diameter of a beam is formed and through which the multiple beams can penetrate, a support base to support the thin film in which an opening is formed under the region including the passage hole, and the width size of the opening is formed to have a temperature of the periphery of the passage hole higher than an evaporation temperature of impurities adhering to the periphery in the case that the thin film is irradiated with the multiple beams, and a sensor arranged, at the position away from the thin film by a distance based on which a detection target beam having passed the passage hole can be detected by the sensor as a detection value with contrast discernible.

Disclosed are methods for optimized sub-sampling in an electron microscope. With regard at least to utilization of electron dose budgets, of time for acquisition of measurements, and of computing/processing capabilities, very high efficiencies can be achieved by informing and/or adapting subsequent sub-sampling measurements according to one or more earlier-acquired sparse datasets and/or according to analyzes thereof.

In one embodiment, a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a stage position detector detecting a position of the stage which holds a substrate to be written, a mark disposed on the stage, a beam position detector detecting a beam position of each beam by allowing the multiple beams to pass over the mark, a beam shape detector detecting a beam shape of the multiple beams at predetermined time intervals based on the detected beam position and the detected position of the stage, the multiple beams being used to irradiate the substrate, and a writing data processor calculating an amount of irradiation correction of each beam for correcting the beam shape based on the detected beam shape.

According to one embodiment, a plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber, a sample stage that is disposed inside the processing chamber and electrically divided into a plurality of regions on which a sample is placed, an electromagnetic wave introduction unit that introduces electromagnetic waves into the processing chamber, and a bias power applying unit that applies bias power to the sample stage, in which the bias power applying unit is configured to include a first radio frequency power applying unit that applies first radio frequency power to a first region out of the plurality of electrically divided regions of the sample stage, a second radio frequency power applying unit that applies second radio frequency power to a second region out of the plurality of electrically divided regions of the sample stage, and a phase adjuster that controls the first radio frequency power applying unit and the second radio frequency power applying unit to shift the phases of the first radio frequency power and the second radio frequency power by a predetermined amount.

An ion implantation apparatus includes a beam scanner that provides a reciprocating beam scan in a beam scan direction in accordance with a scan waveform, a mechanical scanner that causes a wafer to reciprocate in a mechanical scan direction, and a control device that controls the beam scanner and the mechanical scanner to realize a target two-dimensional dose amount distribution on a surface of the wafer. The control device includes a scan frequency adjusting unit that determines a frequency of the scan waveform in accordance with the target two-dimensional dose amount distribution, and a beam scanner driving unit that drives the beam scanner by using the scan waveform having the frequency determined by the scan frequency adjusting unit.

A multiple charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a distribution coefficient calculation circuitry to calculate, using defective beam information based on which a defective beam can be identified, for each design grid in a plurality of design grids being irradiation positions in design of multiple charged particle beams, a distribution coefficient for each of three or more beams, for distributing a dose to irradiate a design grid concerned in the plurality of design grids to the three or more beams, excluding the defective beam, whose actual irradiation positions are close to or approximately coincident with the design grid concerned, such that the position of the gravity center of each distributed dose coincides with the position of the design grid concerned and the sum of each distributed dose after distribution coincides with the dose to irradiate the design grid concerned.