The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for irradiating a sample with primary electron beams to detect secondary electron beams generated from a surface of the sample by the irradiation for evaluating the sample surface. In the electron beam apparatus, an electron gun has a cathode for emitting primary electron beams. The cathode includes a plurality of emitters for emitting primary electron beams, arranged apart from one another on a circle centered at an optical axis of a primary electro-optical system. The plurality of emitters are arranged such that when the plurality of emitters are projected onto a straight line parallel with a direction in which the primary electron beams are scanned, resulting points on the straight line are spaced at equal intervals.

Electron beam apparatus and method of manufacturing semiconductor device using the apparatus

A charged particle beam apparatus is provided which comprises a charged particle source (1) for producing a primary beam of charged particles, aperture means (2) for collimating said primary beam of charged particles, wherein said aperture means is adapted to switch between a collimation of said primary beam to a width appropriate for serial imaging of a sample (8) as well as a collimation of said primary beam to a width appropriate for parallel imaging of said sample (8), a condenser lens (3) for condensing said primary beam of charged particles, scanning means (5) for deflecting said primary beam of charged particles, an objective lens (6) for focusing said condensed primary beam, a sectorized detector (7) for detecting a secondary charged particles. Also, several different operation modes of the beam apparatus are described allowing for serial imaging as well as parallel imaging.

Charged particle beam apparatus and method for operating the same

RF field is sensed to produce an incoming voltage that drives a microarray of electron guns in a sweep pattern towards a detector array. The electron guns emit a beam current that may amplify the incoming voltage signal, and the detector material may be selected to amplify the beam current at the detector, for example, by avalanche and/or cascade in a Schottky material, to provide a low current, high gain amplification. The microarrays may be arranged in various combinations to produce successive amplifications, frequency multipliers, transmit-receive amplifiers, crossbar switches, mixers, beamformers, and selective polarization devices, among other such devices.

Electron Beam RF Amplifier And Emitter

The invention relates to an electron beam exposure apparatus for transferring a pattern onto the surface of a target, comprising: a beamlet generator for generating a plurality of electron beamlets; a modulation array for receiving said plurality of electron beamlets, comprising a plurality of modulators for modulating the intensity of an electron beamlet; a controller, connected to the modulation array for individually controlling the modulators, an adjustor, operationally connected to each modulator, for individually adjusting the control signal of each modulator; a focusing electron optical system comprising an array of electrostatic lenses wherein each lens focuses a corresponding individual beamlet, which is transmitted by said modulation array, to a cross section smaller than 300 nm, and a target holder for holding a target with its exposure surface onto which the pattern is to be transferred in the first focal plane of the focusing electron optical system.

Electron beam exposure system

The invention relates to a charged particle multi-beamlet system for exposing a target (11) using a plurality of beamlets (21). The system has a charged particle source (1), an aperture array (4), a beamlet manipulator, a beamlet blanker (6), and an array of projection lens systems. The charged particle source (1) is configured to generate a charged particle beam (20). The aperture array (4) is configured to define separate beamlets (21) from the generated beam. The beamlet manipulator is configured to converge groups of the beamlets towards a common point of convergence for each group. The beamlet blanker (6) is configured to controllably blank beamlets in the groups of beamlets. Finally, the array of projection lens systems (10) is configured to project unblanked beamlets of the groups of beamlets on to the surface of the target (11). The beamlet manipulator is further adapted to converge each of the groups of beamlets towards a point corresponding to one of the projection lens systems.

Projection lens arrangement

A charge particle optical column capable of being used in a high throughput, mutli-column, multi-beam electron beam lithography system is disclosed herein. The column has the following properties: purely electrostatic components; small column footprint (20 mm square); multiple, individually focused charge particle beams; telecentric scanning of all beams simultaneously on a wafer for increased depth of field; and conjugate blanking of the charged particle beams for reduced beam blur. An electron gun is disclosed that uses microfabricated field emission sources and a microfabricated aperture-deflector assembly. The aperture-deflector assembly acts as a perfect lens in focusing, steering and blanking a multipicity of electron beams through the back focal plane of an immersion lens located at the bottom of the column. Beam blanking can be performed using a gating signal to decrease beam blur during writing on the wafer.

Electron optics for multi-beam electron beam lithography tool

A multi-column electron beam inspection system is disclosed herein. The system is designed for electron beam inspection of semiconductor wafers with throughput high enough for in-line use. The system includes field emission electron sources, electrostatic electron optical columns, a wafer stage with six degrees of freedom of movement, and image storage and processing systems capable of handling multiple simultaneous image data streams. Each electron optical column is enhanced with an electron gun with redundant field emission sources, a voltage contrast plate to allow voltage contrast imaging of wafers, and an electron optical design for high efficiency secondary electron collection.

Multi-beam multi-column electron beam inspection system

An electron beam column incorporating an asymmetrical detector optics assembly provides improved secondary electron collection. The electron beam column comprises an electron gun, an accelerating region, scanning deflectors, focusing lenses, secondary electron detectors and an asymmetrical detector optics assembly. The detector optics assembly comprises a field-free tube, asymmetrical with respect to the electron optical axis; the asymmetry can be introduced by offsetting the field-free tube from the electron optical axis or by chamfering the end of the tube. In other embodiments the detector optics assembly comprises a field-free tube and a voltage contrast plate, either or both of which are asymmetrical with respect to the electron optical axis.

Detector optics for electron beam inspection system

A method of orthogonal time of flight spectrometry is based upon applying a short, high voltage pulse to an electrode (315) to give ions (340, 350) within a pushout region (300) a constant momentum acceleration rather than a constant energy acceleration, thereby all ions (340, 350) in a beam (290) passed into the pushout region (300) are accelerated through a drift tube (325) and to a detector (330) at the same time.

Edward M. Yin

Papers

Electron optics for multi-beam electron beam lithography tool

Multi-beam multi-column electron beam inspection system

Detector optics for electron beam inspection system

Momentum acceleration orthogonal time of flight mass spectrometer