Disclosed herein is an aperture body for passing a portion of a charged particle beam propagating along a beam path comprising an axis, the aperture body comprising: an up-beam facing surface; a chamber portion comprising an up-beam end, a down-beam end and an up-beam plate, wherein the up-beam plate extends radially inwards from the up-beam end and the up-beam plate is configured to define an entrance opening around the beam path; wherein: the up-beam facing surface extends radially inwards from the down-beam end; the up-beam facing surface comprises an aperture portion that is configured to define an opening around the beam path; and the opening defined by the aperture portion is smaller than the entrance opening.

A method of patterning a substrate. The method may include providing a cavity in a layer, disposed on the substrate, the cavity having a first length along a first direction and a first width along a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, and wherein the layer has a first height along a third direction, perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction. The method may include depositing a sacrificial layer over the cavity in a first deposition procedure; and directing angled ions to the cavity in a first exposure, wherein the cavity is etched, and wherein after the first exposure, the cavity has a second length along the first direction, greater than the first length, and wherein the cavity has a second width along the second direction, no greater than the first width.

An observation apparatus and method that avoids drawbacks of a Lorentz method and observes a weak scatterer or a phase object with in-focus, high resolution, and no azimuth dependency, by a Foucault method observation using a hollow-cone illumination that orbits and illuminates an incident electron beam having a predetermined inclination angle, an electron wave is converged at a position (height) of an aperture plate downstream of a sample, and a bright field condition in which a direct transmitted electron wave of the sample passes through the aperture plate, a dark field condition in which the transmitted electron wave is shielded, and a Schlieren condition in which approximately half of the transmitted wave is shielded as a boundary condition of both of the above conditions are controlled, and a spatial resolution of the observation image is controlled by selecting multiple diameters and shapes of the opening of the aperture plate.

The invention relates to a particle beam device (100) for imaging, analyzing and/or processing an object (114). The particle beam device (100) comprises a first particle beam generator (300) for generating a first particle beam, wherein the first particle beam generator (300) has a first generator beam axis (301), wherein an optical axis (OA) of the particle beam device (100) and the first generator beam axis (301) are identical; a second particle beam generator (400) for generating a second particle beam, wherein the second particle beam generator (400) has a second generator beam axis (401), wherein the optical axis (OA) and the second generator beam axis (401) are arranged at an angle being different from 0° and 180°; a deflection unit (500) for deflecting the second particle beam from the second generator beam axis (401) to the optical axis (OA) and along the optical axis (OA), wherein the deflection unit (500) has a first opening (501) and a second opening (502) being different from the first opening (501), wherein the optical axis (OA) runs through the first opening (501), wherein the second generator beam axis (401) runs through the second opening (502); an objective lens (107) for focusing the first particle beam or the second particle beam onto the object (114), wherein the optical axis (OA) runs through the objective lens (107); and at least one detector (116, 121, 122) for detecting interaction particles and/or interaction radiation.

An aperture array for a multi-beam array system and a method of selecting a subset of a beam from a multi-beam array system are provided. The aperture array comprises an array body arranged proximate to a beam source. The array body comprises a plurality of apertures, at least two of the apertures having different geometries. The array body is movable, via an actuator, relative to an optical axis of the beam source, such that a subset of a beam from the beam source is selected based on the geometry of the aperture that is intersected by the optical axis.

A particle beam device has a particle source, an extraction stop, an anode stop and a beam tube. A driver system of the particle beam device is configured to apply an electrical excitation stop potential to the extraction stop, to apply an electrical anode stop potential, able to be set in a variable manner, to the anode stop and to apply an electrical beam tube potential to the beam tube. A controller of the particle beam device is configured to control the driver system such that a voltage between the extraction stop and the anode stop is able to be set in a variable manner, as a result of which a current strength of the particle beam passing through the aperture of the anode stop is able to be set in a variable manner.

A method of operating a semiconductor apparatus includes forming a first electron beam passing through a first shaping aperture; modifying an energy distribution of the first electron beam by a second shaping aperture, such that the first electron beam has a main region and an edge region having a greater energy than the main region; and exposing a workpiece to the main region and the edge region of the first electron beam to create a pattern.

A method includes generating an electron beam from a radiation source; modifying an energy distribution of the electron beam through a first shaping aperture; and exposing a substrate to portions of the electron beam passing through the first shaping aperture. The first shaping aperture comprises blocking strips with a plurality of slots therebetween, a frame surrounding the blocking strips, and a diagonal support connected to the frame and one of the blocking strips.

A transmission electron microscope includes a control unit for: acquiring an image of an objective aperture; obtaining a position of the objective aperture; obtaining an amount of deviation between an object position and the position of the objective aperture, based on the position of the objective aperture; and operating an aperture moving mechanism, based on the amount of deviation of the position of the objective aperture. The position of the objective aperture is obtained by: binarizing the image of the objective aperture by using a set threshold; obtaining an area of an aperture hole of the objective aperture from the binarized image; determining whether the area is within a predetermined range; changing the threshold when a determination is made that the area is outside the predetermined range; and obtaining a position of the objective aperture when a determination is made that the area is within the predetermined range.

Apertures having references edges are situated to define a sample irradiation zone and a shielded zone. The sample irradiation zone includes a portion proximate the shielded zone that is conjugate to a detector. A sample is scanned into the sample irradiation zone from the shielded zone so that the sample can remain unexposed until situated properly with respect to the detector for imaging. Irradiation exposure of the sample is reduced, permitting superior imaging.