An object of the invention is to accurately correct a deviation in position or angle between observation regions in an imaging device that acquires images of a plurality of sample sections. The imaging device according to the invention identifies a correspondence relationship between the observation regions between the sample sections using a feature point on a first image, corrects a deviation between the sample sections using a second image in a narrower range than the first image, and after reflecting a correction result, acquires a third image having a higher resolution than the second image (see FIG. 6B).

An electron beam detection element according to an exemplary embodiment includes a plurality of unit cells. Each of the plurality of unit cells includes a diode of avalanche multiplication type and a plurality of memories. The diode of avalanche multiplication type is configured to detect an electron beam. The plurality of memories store signals of different frames respectively, each of the signals being output from the diode.

A charged particle beam system includes a charged particle source that generates a first charged particle beam and a multi beam generator that generates a plurality of charged particle beamlets from an incoming first charged particle beam. Each individual beamlet is spatially separated from other beamlets. The charged particle beam system also includes an objective lens that focuses incoming charged particle beamlets in a first plane so that a first region in which a first individual beamlet impinges in the first plane is spatially separated from a second region in which a second individual beamlet impinges in the first plane. The charged particle beam system also includes a projection system and a detector system including a plurality of individual detectors. The projection system images interaction products leaving the first region within the first plane due to impinging charged particles onto a first detector and images interaction products leaving the second region in the first plane onto a second detector.

The present disclosure discloses a method, which includes: obtaining, by controlling to move an electron beam to scan a sample, a diffraction intensity of the sample at each scanning position; initializing a sample transmission function and an electron beam function, establishing, based on the diffraction intensity, the sample transmission function, and the electron beam function, a forward propagation model containing to-be-optimized parameters, and calculating a value of a loss function; solving a derivative of the loss function with respect to the to-be-optimized parameters, to obtain gradients of the to-be-optimized parameters in the sample transmission function and the electron beam function, optimizing the to-be-optimized parameters based on the gradients, and updating the value of the loss function; and repeating an iteration process until an iteration termination condition is satisfied, and outputting an optimized sample transmission function and an optimized electron beam function.

Pulsed beam prober systems, devices, and techniques are described herein related to providing a beam detection frequency that is less than a electrical test frequency. An electrical test signal at the electrical test frequency is provided to die under test. A pulsed beam is applied to the die such that the pulsed beam has packets of beam pulses or a frequency delta with respect to the electrical test frequency. The packets of beam pulses or the frequency delta elicits a detectable beam modulation in an imaging signal reflected from the die such that the imaging signal is modulated at a detection frequency less than the electrical test frequency.

A decelerating electrode of this energy filter comprises: an electrode pair that has an opening; and a cavity portion that provided in a rotationally symmetrical manner with the center of the opening as the optical axis. Voltages with electric potentials that are substantially the same as that of a charged particle beam are independently applied to the both sides of the decelerating electrode. When an electrical field protrudes into the cavity portion provided in the decelerating electrode, a saddle point having the same electric potential as that of incident charged particles is formed inside the decelerating electrode. The saddle point acts as a high pass filter for incident charged particles at an energy resolution of 1 mV or less. By analyzing charged particles which have been energy-separated, it is possible to measure the energy spectrum and ΔE at the high resolution of 1 mV or less. In addition, by causing the energy-separated charged particle beam to converge and scan on the sample surface with an electron lens, it is possible to obtain an SEM/STEM image with a high resolution (see FIG. 3).

A charged particle beam system includes a charged particle source that generates a first charged particle beam and a multi beam generator that generates a plurality of charged particle beamlets from an incoming first charged particle beam. Each individual beamlet is spatially separated from other beamlets. The charged particle beam system also includes an objective lens that focuses incoming charged particle beamlets in a first plane so that a first region in which a first individual beamlet impinges in the first plane is spatially separated from a second region in which a second individual beamlet impinges in the first plane. The charged particle beam system also includes a projection system and a detector system including a plurality of individual detectors. The projection system images interaction products leaving the first region within the first plane due to impinging charged particles onto a first detector and images interaction products leaving the second region in the first plane onto a second detector.

An object of the invention is to accurately correct a deviation in position or angle between observation regions in an imaging device that acquires images of a plurality of sample sections. The imaging device according to the invention identifies a correspondence relationship between the observation regions between the sample sections using a feature point on a first image, corrects a deviation between the sample sections using a second image in a narrower range than the first image, and after reflecting a correction result, acquires a third image having a higher resolution than the second image (see FIG. 6B).

The present invention relates to an image generation method for an objective for generating an image corresponding to a multi-frame image from image signals obtained by scanning a small number of frames are proposed. To achieve the above objective, there is proposed a method of performing two-dimensionally scanning on an object on a sample with a beam a plurality of times, generating a first image by integrating image signals obtained by a plurality of times of scanning at a first timing among the image signals generated based on the plurality of times of the two-dimensional scanning (S103), generating a second image based on the smaller number of times of scanning than the number of times of scanning at the first timing including scanning after the first timing (S105), training a learning device by using teacher data with the second image as an input and the first image as an output (S108), and inputting input image signals obtained by the smaller number of times of scanning than the number of times of scanning at the first timing to the trained learning device to output an estimated image.

Multi-beam e-beam columns and inspection systems that use such multi-beam e-beam columns are disclosed. A multi-beam e-beam column configured in accordance with the present disclosure may include an electron source and a multi-lens array configured to produce a plurality of beamlets utilizing electrons provided by the electron source. The multi-lens array may be further configured to shift a focus of at least one particular beamlet of the plurality of beamlets such that the focus of the at least one particular beamlet is different from a focus of at least one other beamlet of the plurality of beamlets.