Abstract: There is provided a repair apparatus including a gas field ion source which includes an ion generation section including a sharpened tip, a cooling unit which cools the tip, an ion beam column which forms a focused ion beam by focusing ions of a gas generated in the gas field ion source, a sample stage which moves while a sample to be irradiated with the focused ion beam is placed thereon, a sample chamber which accommodates at least the sample stage therein, and a control unit which repairs a mask or a mold for nano-imprint lithography, which is the sample, with the focused ion beam formed by the ion beam column. The gas field ion source generates nitrogen ions as the ions, and the tip is constituted by an iridium single crystal capable of generating the ions.

Abstract: A focused ion beam apparatus has an ion source chamber in which is disposed an emitter for emitting ions. A gas supply unit supplies nitrogen gas to the ion source chamber so that the nitrogen gas adsorbs on the surface of the emitter, and the gas supply unit maintains the pressure in the ion source chamber in the range 1.0×10?6 Pa to 1.0×10?2 Pa. An extracting electrode is spaced from the emitter, and a voltage is applied to the extracting electrode to ionize the adsorbed nitrogen gas and extract nitrogen ions in the form of an ion beam. A temperature control unit controls the temperature of the emitter.

Abstract: There is provided an iridium tip including a pyramid structure having one {100} crystal plane as one of a plurality of pyramid surfaces in a sharpened apex portion of a single crystal with <210> orientation. The iridium tip is applied to a gas field ion source or an electron source. The gas field ion source and/or the electron source is applied to a focused ion beam apparatus, an electron microscope, an electron beam applied analysis apparatus, an ion-electron multi-beam apparatus, a scanning probe microscope or a mask repair apparatus.

Abstract: A focused ion beam apparatus includes a lens interferometer configured to detect a relative position of an ion beam column and a sample. An image forming section includes an irradiation position specifying section configured to specify an irradiation position of an ion beam based on the detected relative position of the ion beam column and the sample, and a luminance setting section configured to set luminance of a pixel of an observation image based on the specified irradiation position of the ion beam and a detected amount of secondary particles.

Abstract: A focused ion beam apparatus includes a lens interferometer configured to detect a relative position of an ion beam column and a sample. An image forming section includes an irradiation position specifying section configured to specify an irradiation position of an ion beam based on the detected relative position of the ion beam column and the sample, and a luminance setting section configured to set luminance of a pixel of an observation image based on the specified irradiation position of the ion beam and a detected amount of secondary particles.

Abstract: A focused ion beam system includes a gas field ion source which generates gas ions, an ion gun unit which accelerates the gas ions and radiates the gas ions as an ion beam, a beam optical system which includes at least a focusing lens electrode and radiates the ion beam onto a sample, and an image acquiring mechanism which acquires an FIM image of a tip of an emitter based on the ion beam. The image acquiring mechanism includes an alignment electrode which is disposed between the ion gun unit and the focusing lens electrode and adjusts a radiation direction of the ion beam, an alignment control unit which applies an alignment voltage to the alignment electrode, and an image processing unit which combines a plurality of FIM images acquired when applying different alignment voltages to generate one composite FIM image.

Abstract: A method for fabricating a sharpened needle-like emitter, the method including: electrolytically polishing an end portion of an electrically conductive emitter material so as to be tapered toward a tip portion thereof; performing a first etching in which the electrolytically polished part of the emitter material is irradiated with a charged-particle beam to form a pyramid-like sharpened part having a vertex including the tip portion; performing a second etching in which the tip portion is further sharpened through field-assisted gas etching, while observing a crystal structure at the tip portion by a field ion microscope and keeping the number of atoms at a leading edge of the tip portion at a predetermined number or less; and heating the emitter material to arrange the atoms at the leading edge of the tip portion of the sharpened part in a pyramid shape.

Abstract: A method for fabricating a sharpened needle-like emitter, the method including: electrolytically polishing an end portion of an electrically conductive emitter material so as to be tapered toward a tip portion thereof; performing a first etching in which the electrolytically polished part of the emitter material is irradiated with a charged-particle beam to form a pyramid-like sharpened part having a vertex including the tip portion; performing a second etching in which the tip portion is further sharpened through field-assisted gas etching, while observing a crystal structure at the tip portion by a field ion microscope and keeping the number of atoms at a leading edge of the tip portion at a predetermined number or less; and heating the emitter material to arrange the atoms at the leading edge of the tip portion of the sharpened part in a pyramid shape.

Abstract: A method for fabricating a sharpened needle-like emitter, the method including: electrolytically polishing an end portion of an electrically conductive emitter material so as to be tapered toward a tip portion thereof; performing a first etching in which the electrolytically polished part of the emitter material is irradiated with a charged-particle beam to form a pyramid-like sharpened part having a vertex including the tip portion; performing a second etching in which the tip portion is further sharpened through field-assisted gas etching, while observing a crystal structure at the tip portion by a field ion microscope and keeping the number of atoms at a leading edge of the tip portion at a predetermined number or less; and heating the emitter material to arrange the atoms at the leading edge of the tip portion of the sharpened part in a pyramid shape.

Abstract: Provided is a focused ion beam apparatus including a gas field ion source, the gas field ion source including: an emitter (41) for emitting an ion beam (1); an ion source chamber (40) for containing the emitter (41); a gas supply unit (46) for supplying nitrogen to the ion source chamber (40); an extracting electrode (49) to which a voltage for ionizing the nitrogen and for extracting nitrogen ions is applied; and a temperature control unit (34) for cooling the emitter (41).

Abstract: A method for fabricating an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) mask. In an etching step, at least a part of an absorption layer of an EUVL mask is etched by allowing a charged particle to irradiate the absorption layer under feed of a halogenated xenon gas. In an oxidant feed step, an oxidant is fed to the absorption layer after the etching step to form an oxidized layer at a side surface of the absorption layer that is not etched during the etching step.

Abstract: A first working process performs a deposition working or an etching working to a workpiece by face-irradiating a focused ion beam to the workpiece, and a second working process then performs a deposition working or an etching working to the workpiece by edge-irradiating a focused ion beam to an edge of the workpiece. During the first working process, the deposition working or the etching working is performed to add the missing portion or remove the excess portion to a point slightly short of the edge boundary of the workpiece, i.e., to a point that is less than the irradiation width of the focused ion beam. The remaining missing portion or the remaining excess portion is eliminated in the second working process by edge-irradiating the focused ion beam to the edge of the workpiece.

Abstract: A method for fabricating EUVL mask, by which the pattern of absorption layer can be fabricated at a high precision is provided. The method includes an etching step of etching black defect of the absorption layer of the EUVL mask by the irradiation of ion beam on the absorption layer under feed of xenon fluoride gas and further includes an oxidant feed step for feeding oxidant gas to the absorption layer after the etching step, and the etching step and the oxidant feed step are alternately carried out at plural times.

Abstract: There is provided a focused ion beam processing method in which damage to a workpiece is minimized when the surface of the workpiece is irradiated and processed with an ion beam. The method comprises the steps of: generating an acceleration voltage between an ion source and a workpiece; focusing an ion beam emitted from the ion source; and applying the ion beam to a predetermined process position to process the surface of the workpiece. In this process, the energy level of the ion beam produced by the acceleration voltage is set within a range from at least 1 keV to less than 20 keV.

Abstract: A computer sets a process area based on an image obtained by observing a mask, and determines the positions of representative points that form a contour of the process area for each pixel with sub-pixel accuracy that is better than a pixel, the position of each of the representative points being able to be set to either the center position of the pixel or a position displaced therefrom. Furthermore, for the pixels within the process area, the computer sets the center positions of the pixels as the representative points and corrects the positions of the representative points of the pixels within the process area on a sub-pixel basis such that nonuniformity between the representative points is reduced.

Abstract: After a scan area for observing or processing a mask is set, a computer of the charged particle beam apparatus determines a plurality of scan lines in the scan area by the following steps of: setting a scan line along the outer circumference of the scan area; determining a scan line inside and along the thus set scan line; determining a scan line inside and along the thus determined scan line; and repeating the step of determining a scan line. After the scan lines are determined, the computer controls a scanning circuit to apply an ion beam to the scan lines while thinning out scan lines and/or pixels.

Abstract: Even in a case where it is one whose size is smaller than an irradiation width of a focused ion beam, it is possible to desirably work its place desired to be worked. A working method by focused ion beam I, which performs a deposition working or an etching working to a work piece 90 by irradiating the focused ion beam to the work piece 90, wherein as a dose quantity is increased by irradiating the focused ion beam I to an edge E of the work piece 90 and controlling the dose quantity of the focused ion beam, a region gradually worked spreads from the edge, thereby deposition-working or etching-working the work piece 90.

Abstract: When scanning by an ion beam in advance an area 24 including a reference hole 23 formed at a position other than the area to be processed 25 of a light-shielding film 21 on a glass substrate 22, a secondary ion signal of the same atom as the incident ions injected into the substrate is detected instead of detecting the secondary ion signal of the atoms included in the base film, and the position 23 of the hole is stored. Then, the area 24 including the hole formed during the processing is scanned and the secondary ion signal of the same atom as the incident ions is detected to determine the current position 26 of the hole, the position of the hole obtained by the previous detection and the current position of the hole are compared, and the amount of shift of the position of the hole is determined. This shifted amount is regarded as the drift amount.

Abstract: There is provided a focused ion beam processing method in which damage to a workpiece is minimized when the surface of the workpiece is irradiated and processed with an ion beam. The method comprises the steps of: generating an acceleration voltage between an ion source and a workpiece; focusing an ion beam emitted from the ion source; and applying the ion beam to a predetermined process position to process the surface of the workpiece. In this process, the energy level of the ion beam produced by the acceleration voltage is set within a range from at least 1 keV to less than 20 keV.

Abstract: A reference area that contains a straight contour of a workpiece pattern is irradiated with a beam at a fixed interval to form images. The positions of the contour line in the images before and after a certain time of image formation are compared with each other and the amount of displacement between the positions is calculated. When the workpiece is processed, the beam is applied to the process position corrected by the amount of displacement.