A charged-particle beam (CPB) is aligned to a primary axis of a CPB microscope by determining a first beam deflection drive to a beam deflector for directing the CPB passing a reference location displaced from the primary axis. The beam deflector is provided with a second beam deflection drive during the working mode of the CPB microscope to propagate the beam along the primary axis. The second beam deflection drive is determined based on the first beam deflection drive.

The purpose of the present disclosure is to propose a charged particle beam device capable of allowing specifying of a distance between irradiation points for a pulsed beam and a time between irradiation points. Proposed is a charged particle beam device equipped with a beam column which has a scanning deflector for sweeping a beam and directs the beam swept by the scanning deflector onto a sample in pulses, wherein: the distance between irradiation points of the pulsed beam is set such that feature quantities of one or more specific regions of an image obtained on the basis of an output of a detector satisfy a predetermined state; the duration of time between irradiation points for the pulsed beam is changed when in a state in which the set distance between irradiation points is set or in a state in which multiple distances between irradiation points determined on the basis of the specified distance between irradiation points are set; and the beam emission is carried out according to the duration of time between irradiation points whereby the feature quantities of the multiple specific regions of the image obtained on the basis of the output of the detector satisfy the predetermined state.

A multiple-electron-beam-image acquisition apparatus includes an electromagnetic lens to receive and refract multiple electron beams, an aberration corrector, disposed in a magnetic field of the electromagnetic lens, to correct aberration of the multiple electron beams, an aperture-substrate, disposed movably at the upstream of the aberration corrector with respect to an advancing direction of the multiple electron beams, to selectively make an individual beam of the multiple electron beams pass therethrough independently, a movable stage to dispose thereon the aberration corrector, a stage control circuit, using an image caused by the individual beam selectively made to pass, to move the stage to align the position of the aberration corrector to the multiple electron beams having been relatively aligned with the electromagnetic lens, and a detector to detect multiple secondary electron beams emitted because the target object surface is irradiated with multiple electron beams having passed through the aberration corrector.

A pattern inspection apparatus according to an aspect described herein includes: a stage on which an object to be inspected is capable to be mounted, a multibeam column that irradiates the object to be inspected with multi-primary electron beams, and a multi-detector including a first detection pixel that receives irradiation of a first secondary electron beam emitted after a first beam scanning region of the object to be inspected is irradiated with a first primary electron beam of the multi-primary electron beams and a second detection pixel that receives irradiation of a second secondary electron beam emitted after a second beam scanning region adjacent to the first beam scanning region of the object to be inspected and overlapping with the first beam scanning region is irradiated with a second primary electron beam adjacent to the first primary electron beam of the multi-primary electron beams; a comparison unit that obtains a difference in beam intensity between the first primary electron beam and the second primary electron beam by comparing overlapping portions of a first frame image acquired through entering of the first secondary electron beam into the first detection pixel and a second frame image acquired through entering of the second secondary electron beam into the second detection pixel; and a sensitivity adjustor that adjusts detection sensitivity of the first detection pixel and/or the second detection pixel so as to correct the difference in beam intensity.

An electron microscope includes: an irradiation lens system that irradiates a specimen with an electron beam; an irradiation system deflector that deflects an electron beam incident on the specimen; a specimen tilting mechanism that tilts the specimen; an imaging lens system that forms an electron diffraction pattern or an electron microscope image by using an electron having passed through the specimen; an imaging device that acquires the electron diffraction pattern or the electron microscope image formed by the imaging lens system; and a controller that controls the irradiation system deflector and the specimen tilting mechanism. The controller performs: a process of acquiring a plurality of electron diffraction patters formed by using electron beams having different incidence angles to the specimen, the different incidence angles having been obtained by deflecting the electron beams incident on the specimen by using the irradiation system deflector; a process of calculating a tilt angle of the specimen based on the plurality of electron diffraction patterns; and a process of controlling the specimen tilting mechanism so that the specimen has the calculated tilt angle.

Systems and methods for tuning and/or calibrating a charged particle beam apparatus are disclosed. According to certain embodiments, a reference specimen comprises a substrate having a plurality of first objects at a first pitch, and a plurality of second objects at a second pitch. Regions containing the first and second objects may overlap. A method of tuning and/or calibrating may comprise analyzing an image of a sample at a plurality of coarseness levels, determining whether a parameter of the image satisfies a criteria based on measured characteristics of the image at the coarseness levels, and adjusting the parameter.

A reference sample (41) has a step/terrace structure made of monocrystalline SiC and a surface of each terrace has first or second stack orientation. In the reference sample (41), contrast as difference in lightness and darkness between an image of a terrace with a surface directly under which the first stack orientation lies and an image of a terrace with a surface directly under which the second stack orientation lies changes according to an incident electron angle which is an angle that an electron beam emitted from a scanning electron microscope forms with a perpendicular to the terrace surface. Even when a SiC substrate has an off angle (e.g., from 1 to 8), using an inclined support base (20a) capable of correcting the off angle enables sharp contrast that reflects difference between the first and second stack orientations directly under the surface to be obtained irrespective of the off angle.

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.

A multiple beam inspection apparatus includes a multi-detector to detect multiple secondary electron beams generated because a target object is irradiated with multiple primary electron beams, and to include plural detection pixels each receiving irradiation of a corresponding one of the multiple secondary electron beams, and having a region which receives irradiation of a corresponding secondary electron beam and is larger than the irradiation spot size of the corresponding secondary electron beam, a shifting mechanism to shift irradiation positions of the multiple secondary electron beams irradiating the plural detection pixels, a determination circuitry to determine whether sensitivity of at least one of the plural detection pixels is degraded, and a setting circuitry to set, when sensitivity of at least one detection pixel is degraded, irradiation position shifting destinations of multiple secondary electron beams, irradiating the plural detection pixels, to be within respective corresponding same detection pixels.

A charged particle beam device includes: a charged particle source; an optical system which acts on a charged particle beam emitted from the charged particle source; a control unit which controls the optical system; and a storage unit which stores previous setting values of the optical system. The optical system includes a first optical element and a second optical element for controlling a state of the charged particle beam to be incident on the first optical element. The control unit obtains an initial value of a setting value of the second optical element based on previous setting values of the second optical element; and changes a state of the charged particle beam by changing the setting value of the second optical element from the obtained initial value and obtains the setting value of the second optical element based on the change in the state of the charged particle beam.