The purpose of the present invention is to provide a charged particle ray device which is capable of simply estimating the cross-sectional shape of a pattern. The charged particle ray device according to the present invention acquires a detection signal for each different discrimination condition of an energy discriminator, and estimates the cross-sectional shape of a sample by comparing the detection signal for each discrimination condition with a reference pattern (see FIG. 5).

The methods and systems disclosed here detect edges of top-down images of respective cross-sections of an array of high-aspect-ratio (HAR) features. The respective cross sections are at various depths of a HAR feature along a longitudinal direction. The detected edges are re-sampled in a spatial domain at a target angular resolution. The re-sampled edges are represented as a corresponding set of harmonics in a frequency domain, each set of harmonics preserving characteristic information about a respective cross-section of the HAR feature at a certain depth. A plurality of cross-sections at the various depths of the HAR feature are reconstructed by analyzing the corresponding sets of harmonics in the frequency domain. A 3D profile of the HAR feature is generated by stitching the plurality of re-constructed cross-sections at the various depths of the HAR feature.

To measure a depth of a three-dimensional structure, for example, a hole or a groove, formed in a sample without preparing information for each pattern or calibration in advance. The invention provides an electron microscope including a detection unit that detects, among emitted electrons generated from a sample by irradiating the sample with a primary electron beam, emitted electrons of which an emission angle is in a predetermined range, the emission angle being an angle formed between an axial direction of the primary electron beam and an emission direction of the emitted electrons from the sample, and outputs a detection signal corresponding to the number of the emitted electrons which are detected. In the electron microscope, an emission angle distribution of a detection signal is obtained based on a plurality of detection signals output by the detection unit, the detection signals being obtained by detecting the emitted electrons having emission angles in each of the plurality of set ranges of emission angles and generated by irradiating a bottom portion of the three-dimensional structure with the primary electron beam, and an opening angle is obtained based on a change point of the emission angle distribution, the opening angle being an angle formed between an optical axis direction of the primary electron beam and a straight line that passes through an upper end of a side wall of the three-dimensional structure from a position irradiated with the primary electron beam in the bottom portion of the three-dimensional structure.

An electron microscope device includes: a first detection means disposed at a high elevation angle for detecting electrons having relatively low energy; a second detection means disposed at a low elevation angle for detecting electrons having relatively high energy; a means for identifying, from a first image obtained from a first detector, a hole region in a semiconductor pattern within a preset region; a means for calculating for individual holes, from a second image obtained from a second detector, indexes pertaining to an inclined orientation and an inclination angle, on the basis of the distance between the outer periphery of the hole region and the hole bottom; and a means for calculating, from the results measured for the individual holes, indexes pertaining to an inclined orientation of the hole and an inclination angle of the hole as representative values for the image being measured.

A system, computer program product and a method for measuring a hole. The method may include charging a vicinity of the hole having a nanometric width; obtaining, multiple electron images of the hole; wherein each electron image is formed by sensing electrons of an electron energy that exceeds an electron energy threshold that is associated with the electron image; wherein electron energy thresholds associated with different electron images of the multiple electron images differ from each other; receiving or generating a mapping between height values and the electron energy thresholds; processing the multiple electron images to provide hole measurements; and generating three dimensional measurements of the hole based on the mapping and the hole measurements.

A pattern measuring device ensures highly accurately measuring a depth and a three-dimensional shape irrespective of a formation accuracy of a deep trench and/or a deep hole. Therefore, in the present invention, the measuring system detects backscattered electrons from a pattern caused by an irradiation, compares backscattered electron signal intensities from a top surface, a bottom surface, and a sidewall of the pattern, and calculates a three-dimensional shape (or height information) of the sidewall based on a difference in heights of the top surface and the lower surface. The measuring system compares the calculated three-dimensional shape of the sidewall with a three-dimensional shape of the sidewall estimated based on an intensity distribution (open angle) of a primary electron beam, corrects the estimated three-dimensional shape of the sidewall based on a difference in the comparison, and corrects until the difference in the comparison becomes an acceptable value.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a charged-particle beam apparatus capable of performing various types of signal discriminations according to the shape and the size of a sample. The present invention proposes a charged-particle beam apparatus for irradiating a sample disposed in a vacuum vessel with a charged particle beam. The charged-particle beam apparatus is provided with: a first light-generating surface for generating light on the basis of the collision of charged particles released from the sample; a light-guiding member for guiding the generated light to the outside of the vacuum vessel while maintaining the generation distribution of the light generated at the first light-generating surface; a photodetector for detecting the light guided by the light-guiding member to the outside of the vacuum vessel; and a light-transmission restricting member for restricting transmission of the light guided by the light-guiding member between the photodetector and the light-guiding member.

The methods and systems disclosed here leverage currently available reliable top down imaging techniques used by SEMs and use computational methods to synthesize accurate 3D profiles of features of high aspect ratio structures in a device. Radial cross-sectional profiles obtained from different locations along the lateral direction at different heights/depths are stitched together to create one composite 3D profile of the HAR feature.

The methods and systems disclosed here leverage currently available reliable top down imaging techniques used by SEMs and use computational methods to synthesize accurate 3D profiles of features of high aspect ratio structures in a device. Radial cross-sectional profiles obtained from different locations along the lateral direction at different heights/depths are stitched together to create one composite 3D profile of the HAR feature.

Provided is a charged particle beam apparatus, aiming at obtaining an image and the like focused on the sample surface and the bottom while preventing the visual field deviation occurred when focusing on the sample surface and the bottom respectively. The charged particle beam apparatus forms a first image (301), which is based on detection of the first energy charged particles, based on an irradiation with a beam whose focus is adjusted on a sample surface side, forms a second image (304) which is based on detection of second energy charged particles having a relatively higher energy than the first energy and a third image (303) which is based on the detection of the first energy charged particles, based on the irradiation with a beam whose focus is adjusted on a bottom side of a pattern included in the sample, acquires a deviation between the first image and the third image, and composes the first image and the second image so as to correct the deviation.