Patents Assigned to NuFlare Technology, Inc.
  • Publication number: 20240136148
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a beam detector includes a first aperture plate including a first passage hole, a second aperture plate including a second passage hole that allows a single detection target beam passing through the first passage hole to pass therethrough, and a sensor detecting a beam current of the detection target beam passing through the second passage hole. The second aperture plate includes an electrically conductive material, a plurality of third passage holes are formed around the second passage hole, and the plurality of third passage holes allow light to pass therethrough.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2023
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasutaka SATO, Hironori MIZOGUCHI, Toru HINATA, Toshiki KIMURA, Kiminobu AKENO
  • Patent number: 11961708
    Abstract: Position shifts caused by charging phenomena can be corrected with high accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Haruyuki Nomura, Noriaki Nakayamada
  • Patent number: 11961703
    Abstract: A beam arrangement portion is provided to arrange multiple primary electron beams on a substrate. The beam arrangement portion arranges the multiple primary electron beams in a square lattice along a first moving direction of a stage allowing the substrate to be placed thereon and a second moving direction perpendicular to the first moving direction in a state where, when the multiple primary electron beams are viewed as a whole, beams around four corners of the square lattice are omitted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Chosaku Noda
  • Patent number: 11942305
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a data generation method includes generating a plurality of parametric elements by dividing, at positions of an extremum and an inflection point, a parametric curve that expresses a shape of a writing pattern and is defined by a plurality of control points arranged in order in a predetermined direction, generating a polygon by extracting, for each of the parametric elements, one or some of the plurality of control points and connecting the extracted control points in order in the predetermined direction, calculating a coverage by the polygon in each of a plurality of rectangular segmented regions obtained by dividing a target to be irradiated with a charged particle beam into a predetermined size, and calculating a coverage of each segmented region in a peripheral part of the writing pattern by finding intersections of each of the plurality of parametric elements and four sides of each of the plurality of segmented regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenichi Yasui
  • Publication number: 20240096590
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a length measurer includes a first laser interferometer provided in a wall surface of the writing chamber, synthesizes a laser beam with the first frequency which has traveled back and forth between the first laser interferometer and the stage and a laser beam with the second frequency reflected in the first laser interferometer, and outputs a first beat signal. A wall surface displacement measurer includes a second laser interferometer provided in the wall surface of the writing chamber, synthesizes a laser beam with the first frequency which has traveled back and forth between the second laser interferometer and a fixed mirror and a laser beam with the second frequency reflected in the second laser interferometer, and outputs a second beat signal. The position of the stage is calculated based on a difference between the first beat signal and the second beat signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasutaka SATO, Yuto ASAKURA
  • Publication number: 20240087845
    Abstract: An electron beam writing apparatus according to the present invention includes a potential regulating member arranged to be upstream of a target object in the case where the target object is placed on a stage, and configured to be set to have a fixed potential being positive with respect to the target object, a potential applying circuit configured to apply a voltage to the target object or the potential regulating member so that the potential regulating member has the fixed potential, and a correction circuit configured to correct a positional deviation of the electron beam on a surface of the target object which occurs in the case where the target object is irradiated with the electron beam in the state in which the potential regulating member has the fixed potential.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2023
    Publication date: March 14, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Haruyuki NOMURA, Hirofumi MORITA
  • Publication number: 20240079200
    Abstract: A multi-electron beam image acquiring apparatus includes a stage configured to mount thereon a substrate, an illumination optical system configured to apply multiple primary electron beams to the substrate, a plurality of multipole lenses including at least two stages of multipole lenses, arranged at positions common to a trajectory of the multiple primary electron beams and a trajectory of multiple secondary electron beams which are emitted because the substrate is irradiated with the multiple primary electron beams and each configured to include at least four electrodes and at least four magnetic poles, and a multi-detector configured to detect the multiple secondary electron beams separated from the trajectory of the multiple primary electron beams, wherein one of the plurality of multipole lenses separates the multiple secondary electron beams from the trajectory of the multiple primary electron beams.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Kazuhiko INOUE, Atsushi ANDO, Munehiro OGASAWARA
  • Publication number: 20240071714
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a beam detector includes a first aperture substrate including a first passage hole smaller than a pitch between beams of a multi charged particle beam, a second aperture substrate including a second passage hole allowing one detection target beam which has passed through the first passage hole, and a sensor detecting a beam current of the detection target beam which has passed through the second passage hole. The second aperture substrate has light permeability, and includes a conductive material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2023
    Publication date: February 29, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasutaka SATO, Kiminobu AKENO
  • Patent number: 11915902
    Abstract: A conduction inspection method for a multipole aberration corrector according to one aspect of the present invention includes applying, in a state where a predetermined potential has been applied to each shield electrode, an inspection charged particle beam to pass through a first opening, a second opening, and a third opening, using a multipole aberration corrector which includes an upper-stage substrate where the first opening is formed and a shield electrode is arranged around the first opening, a middle-stage substrate where the second opening is formed, a plurality of control electrodes are disposed to be opposite each other across the second opening, and a plurality of wirings are arranged to be individually connected to one of the plurality of control electrodes which are different from each other, and a lower-stage substrate where the third opening is formed and a shield electrode is arranged around the third opening, and which corrects aberration of a correction charged particle beam passing through
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Atsushi Ando, Kazuhiko Inoue
  • Patent number: 11908659
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a blanking aperture array substrate provided with a plurality of blankers configured to respectively perform blanking deflection on a plurality of charged particle beams included in a multi-beam, and a first shield member which is disposed downstream of the blanking aperture array substrate with respect to a travel direction of the multi-beam, has a cylindrical part in which the multi-beam passes through, and is composed of a high magnetic permeability material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Toshiki Kimura, Hirofumi Morita, Takanao Touya, Mitsuhiro Okazawa
  • Publication number: 20240055218
    Abstract: A charged particle beam writing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes an electrode configured to deflect a charged particle beam, an amplifier configured to apply a deflection potential to the electrode, a diagnostic circuit configured to diagnose the amplifier, a switching circuit arranged between an output of the amplifier and the electrode, and configured to switch the output of the amplifier between the electrode and the diagnostic circuit, an electron optical system configured to irradiate a target object with the charged particle beam deflected by being applied with the deflection potential by the amplifier, a column configured to include therein the electrode and the electron optical system, a first coaxial cable configured to connect an output side of the amplifier with the switching circuit, a second coaxial cable configured to connect the electrode with the switching circuit, a third coaxial cable configured to connect the output side of the amplifier with the diagnosti
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2021
    Publication date: February 15, 2024
    Applicants: NuFlare Technology, Inc., NuFlare Technology America, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasuo SENGOKU, Yoshikuni GOSHIMA, John William KAY, Chising LAI
  • Publication number: 20240054633
    Abstract: A defect inspection apparatus includes an imaging mechanism for imaging a sample; an image acquisition circuit configured to generate an inspection image based on image data of the sample imaged by the imaging mechanism; a development circuit configured to generate a developed image from design data; a reference image generation circuit that includes a resizing process circuit configured to perform pattern classification from the developed image, and execute a resizing process for the developed image based on a resizing amount set for each classification, and that is configured to generate a reference image using the developed image after the resizing process; and a comparison circuit configured to compare the inspection image with the reference image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2021
    Publication date: February 15, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Shinji SUGIHARA
  • Patent number: 11901154
    Abstract: An electron emission cathode which includes a base, a heater connected to the base, an electron emitter connected to the heater at a mounting location distal to the base, and a conical heat shield surrounding a portion of the heater, having a truncated cone shape comprising a narrow end oriented toward the base and a wide end oriented toward the electron emitter. The conical heat shield is configured to reflect heat radiated by the heater toward the electron emitter. The conical heat shield reduces an overheating required to bring the electron emitter to an emission temperature and reduces a heating power required to operate the cathode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignees: NuFlare Technology, Inc., NuFlare Technology America, Inc.
    Inventor: Victor Katsap
  • Patent number: 11901156
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a multi-charged-particle-beam writing method includes performing a tracking operation such that, while a substrate placed on a stage moving continuously is being irradiated with multiple beams including a plurality of charged particle beams, deflection positions of the multiple beams follow movement of the stage, and applying the multiple beams to the substrate having a writing area including a plurality of rectangular regions arranged in a mesh during the tracking operation such that each of the plurality of rectangular regions is irradiated with the multiple beams. Each rectangular region includes a plurality of pixels each having a predetermined size and arranged in a mesh. At least one subset of the plurality of pixels is irradiated with the multiple beams in a first shot order and is then irradiated with the multiple beams in a second shot order different from the first shot order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Ryosuke Ueba, Satoru Hirose, Shunsuke Isaji, Rieko Nishimura
  • Publication number: 20240046449
    Abstract: An inspection apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to: acquire a first image and a second image for inspecting an inspection target; generate a plurality of deformed images by applying a plurality of deformation processes to at least one of the first image or the second image; calculate, for each pixel, a difference value between a pixel value of the first image and a pixel value of the second image, using the deformed images; calculate a pixel-by-pixel integrated difference value by integrating a plurality of difference values calculated for the respective deformed images; and detect an anomaly of the inspection target based on the pixel-by-pixel integrated difference value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2023
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Applicants: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA, NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Takashi Watanabe, Hiromu Inoue, Toshiyuki Ono
  • Publication number: 20240029999
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a blanking aperture array system includes a blanking aperture array substrate including a plurality of beam passage holes through which beams in a multi charged particle beam pass and being provided with blankers to perform blanking deflection on the beams, and an X-ray shield disposed upstream of the blanking aperture array substrate. A cell section including the beam passage holes and the blankers is provided in a central portion of the blanking aperture array substrate, and a circuit section applying a voltage to each of the blankers is disposed in a periphery of the cell section. The circuit section is disposed such that a shortest distance between the circuit section and an outermost peripheral beam passage hole of the plurality of beam passage holes is greater than or equal to a distance based on an electron range in the blanking aperture array substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2023
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Hiroshi YAMASHITA
  • Publication number: 20240013999
    Abstract: According to one embodiment of the present invention, a mounting substrate is installed on a multi charged particle beam irradiation apparatus, and a blanking aperture array chip provided with blanking electrodes to perform blanking deflection on beams in a multi charged particle beam is mounted on the mounting substrate. The mounting substrate includes an opening through which the multi charged particle beam passes, a plurality of control circuits that supply a control signal to the blanking electrodes for each of a plurality of areas into which the blanking aperture array chip is divided, and grounds, each of which is provided for a corresponding one of the plurality of control circuits and configured to supply a ground electrical potential to the corresponding control circuit. The grounds corresponding to the control circuits are electrically separated from each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2023
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Toshiki KIMURA, Hirofumi MORITA, Takanao TOUYA, Hayato KIMURA, Kazuhiro CHIBA
  • Patent number: 11869746
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a multi-beam writing method is for irradiating each of pixels defined on a substrate, placed on a stage, with each beam of a multi-beam to form a pattern. The method includes obtaining a position correction amount of the pattern by each of a plurality of sub-arrays into which an array of the multi-beam is divided at least in a predetermined direction, based on the positional deviation amount of each beam of each of the sub-arrays, which obtained by dividing an array of the multi-beam at least in the predetermined direction, calculating an dose of the each beam irradiated to each pixel for shifting the position of the pattern drawn for each of the sub-arrays based on the position correction, and performing multi-writing using at least a portion of each two or more of the sub-arrays with the calculated dose.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Matsumoto, Yasuo Kato
  • Publication number: 20230420217
    Abstract: A multiple charged particle beam writing method according to one aspect of the present invention includes performing writing, during writing in the k-th (k being an integer of at least one) stripe region, in the k-th extended region, which is obtained by extending the irradiation region in the first direction by a predetermined extension width, while deflecting multiple charged particle beams and moving the multiple charged particle beams in the second direction, and performing writing, during writing in the (k+1)th stripe region, in the (k+1)th extended region, which is obtained by extending the irradiation region in the first direction by the extension width, while deflecting the multiple charged particle beams and moving the multiple charged particle beams in the second direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2023
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Applicant: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Hiroshi MATSUMOTO
  • Patent number: D1016761
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Takuto Umetsu, Masayoshi Yajima, Kunihiko Suzuki