Described herein are a system and method of preparing integrated circuits (ICs) so that the ICs remain electrically active and can have their active circuitry probed for diagnostic and characterization purposes using charged particle beams. The system employs an infrared camera capable of looking through the silicon substrate of the ICs to image electrical circuits therein, a focused ion beam system that can both image the IC and selectively remove substrate material from the IC, a scanning electron microscope that can both image structures on the IC and measure voltage contrast signals from active circuits on the IC, and a means of extracting heat generated by the active IC. The method uses the system to identify the region of the IC to be probed, and to selectively remove all substrate material over the region to be probed using ion bombardment, and further identifies endpoint detection means of milling to the required depth so as to observe electrical states and waveforms on the active IC.

This automatic processing device for fabricating a sample piece from a sample by irradiating the sample with a charged particle beam is provided with: a structural information acquiring unit which acquires structural information indicating the structure of the sample before processing; a processing termination position acquiring unit which acquires termination position specifying information specifying a processing termination position corresponding to the structure of the sample; an image acquiring unit which acquires a processed surface image in which a processed surface appearing at the position at which the sample has been irradiated by the charged particle beam is captured; and a determining unit which determines whether the position of the processing by the charged particle beam has reached the termination position, on the basis of a comparison between the structural information acquired by the structural information acquiring unit and the processed surface image acquired by the image acquiring unit.

Provided is a process for lamella thinning and endpointing that substitutes a series of automated small angle tilts for the motions in the conventional endpointing sequence. STEM images or through-surface BSE scans are acquired at each tilt. The results are analyzed automatically to determine feature depths, and an intervention request is made requesting a user decision based on marked-up images and summary information displayed.

The invention relates to a method of determining the thickness of a sample. According to this method, a diffraction pattern image of a sample of a first material is obtained. Said diffraction pattern image comprises at least image values representative for the diffraction pattern obtained for said sample. A slope of said image values is then determined. The slope is compared to a relation between the thickness of said first material and the slope of image value of a corresponding diffraction pattern image of said first material. The determined slope and said relation are used to determine the thickness of said sample.

The charged particle beam irradiation apparatus includes: a focused ion beam column; an electron beam column; an electron detector; an image forming unit configured to form an observation image based on a signal output from the electron detector; and a control unit configured to repeatedly perform exposure control in which the focused ion beam column is controlled to expose a cross section of a multilayered sample toward a stacking direction with the focused ion beam, the control unit being configured to perform, every time exposure of an observation target layer at a cross section of the multilayered sample is detected in a process of repeatedly performing the exposure control, observation control in which the electron beam column is controlled to radiate the electron beam, and the image forming unit is controlled to form an observation image of the cross section of the multilayered sample.

Embodiments described herein provide apparatus, software applications, and methods of a coating process, such as an Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition (EBPVD) of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) on objects. The objects may include aerospace components, e.g., turbine vanes and blades, fabricated from nickel and cobalt-based super alloys. The apparatus, software applications, and methods described herein provide at least one of the ability to detect an endpoint of the coating process, i.e., determine when a thickness of a coating satisfies a target value, and the ability for closed-loop control of process parameters.

Embodiments described herein provide apparatus, software applications, and methods of a coating process, such as an Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition (EBPVD) of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) on objects. The objects may include aerospace components, e.g., turbine vanes and blades, fabricated from nickel and cobalt-based super alloys. The apparatus, software applications, and methods described herein provide at least one of the ability to detect an endpoint of the coating process, i.e., determine when a thickness of a coating satisfies a target value, and the ability for closed-loop control of process parameters.

A method for measuring conductance of a material real-time during etching/milling includes providing a fixture having a socket for receiving the material. The socket is attached to a printed circuit board (PCB) mounted on one side of a plate that has at least one opening for providing ion beam access to the material sample. Conductive probes extend from the other side of the PCB to contact and span a target area of the material. A measurement circuit in electrical communication with the probes measures the voltage produced when a current is applied across the material sample to measure changes in electrical properties of the sample over time.

A method for evaluating a region of an object, the method may include repeating, for each sub-region out of a first sub-region of the region till a penultimate sub-region of the region, the steps of: (a) acquiring, by a charged particle imager, a charged particle image of the sub-region; and (b) milling, by a charged particle miller, the sub-region to expose another sub-region of region; acquiring, by the charged particle imager, a charged particle image of a last sub-region of the region; and generating three-dimensional information about a content of the region based on charge particle images of the first sub-region till last sub-region of the region.

Automated processing is provided. A charged particle beam apparatus includes: an image identity degree determination unit determining whether an identity degree is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the identity degree indicating a degree of identity between a processing cross-section image that is an SEM image obtained through observation of a cross section of the sample by a scanning electron microscope, and a criterion image that is the processing cross-section image previously registered; and a post-determination processing unit performing a predetermined processing operation according to a result of the determination by the image identity degree determination unit.