Abstract: A liquid transfer device electrically controls liquid position. The surface of the liquid transfer device is provided with unevenness in order to solve a problem of having a large number of electrodes for controlling voltage. The number of electrodes for controlling voltage can be halved by the utilization of a restoring force of the liquid to a spherical shape by surface tension, in addition to an electrical force.

Abstract: A tandem mass spectrometer comprising an ion source for ionizing a sample, an ion trap section for carrying out collision induced dissociation of the target ions thereby to produce fragment ions, a multi electrode collision section for conducting collision induced dissociation of fragment ions discharged from the ion trap section, a mass spectrometer section for conducting mass spectrometric analysis of the converged fragment ions. After the target ions selected by the ion trap section are subjected to collision induced dissociation, specific fragment ions among the fragment ions are selected and transferred to the multi electrode collision section thereby to carry out collision induced dissociation therein.

Abstract: A focused charged particle beam apparatus including an aberration corrector, capable of finding the absolute value of the aberration coefficient at high speed, and capable of making high-accuracy adjustments at high speed. A deflection coil tilts the input beam relative to the object point, and measures the defocus data and aberration quantity at high speed while the beam is tilted from one image, and perform least squares fitting on these results to find the absolute value of the aberration coefficient prior to tilting the beam, and to adjust the aberration corrector.

Abstract: In an apparatus for photographing an image of a product to judge whether or not a defect is present, a manufacturing desirable image is formed from data acquired when the product was designed, which could be obtained if no defect was present when the product was photographed, an inspection portion where a defect may occur is selected from the formed manufacturing desirable image, a defect pattern is superimposed on the selected inspection portion so as to form a template equipped with the defect pattern. The image of the product is photographed, a template matching operation is carried out as a template having the defect pattern, and judgement is made whether or not a defect is present based upon a matched evaluation value. As a result, the judgement for judging whether or not the defect is present can be directly carried out based upon the evaluation value.

Abstract: The invention provides a plasma processing apparatus and a dry etching method for etching a multilayered film structure having steps with high accuracy. The plasma processing apparatus comprises a vacuum reactor 107, a lower electrode 113 placed within a processing chamber of the vacuum reactor and having a wafer 112 to be etched mounted on the upper surface thereof, bias supplying units 118 and 120 for supplying high frequency power for forming a bias potential to the lower electrode 113, a gas supply means 111 for feeding reactive gas into the processing chamber, an electric field supplying means 101 through 103 for supplying a magnetic field for generating plasma in the processing chamber, and a control unit 127 for controlling the distribution of ion energy in the plasma being incident on the wafer 112 via the high frequency power.

Abstract: An automated analyzer includes pipetting means for discharging a sample and reagent into an empty reaction vessel without causing contact to occur between the leading end of a sample probe and the bottom of the reaction vessel. The sample probe is inserted into the reaction vessel and then stopped when a bottom end of an outer pipe of the sample probe comes in contact with the top edge of the reaction vessel to maintain a fixed gap between the leading end of an inner pipe of the sample probe and the bottom of the reaction vessel. Further, an insulating material is disposed between the inner and outer pipes of the sample probe.

Abstract: In the case of die-to-die comparison, threshold processing units process the differential image between the image of a sample chip and the images of left and right adjacent chips using a second threshold value lower than a first threshold value thereby to determine a defect candidate for the sample chip. Further, threshold processing units process the differential image using the first threshold value. The defect candidates which develops a signal not smaller than the first threshold is detected as a defect. Also in the cell-to-cell comparison, the differential image is first processed by the second threshold value to determine a defect candidate, and the differential image is further processed by the first threshold value. The defect candidates which develops a signal not smaller than the first threshold value is detected as a defect.

Abstract: It is the object of the present invention to provide a pattern measurement apparatus which suitably evaluates a pattern formed by a double patterning method prior to a transfer using masks or which suitably evaluates a deviation of patterns formed by the double patterning method. To achieve the object, a pattern measurement apparatus is proposed which performs an exposure simulation on data about contour lines obtained by converting the pattern edges of first and mask images formed based on charged-particle beam irradiation of the two masks used for subsequent double exposure and which overlaps two exposure-simulated contour lines based on the coordinate information of design data about the masks. Furthermore, a pattern dimension measuring apparatus is proposed which sets measurement conditions using a charged-particle beam based on the positional information about parts or portions separated for double exposure.

Abstract: An automatic analysis apparatus that is capable of aligning the timing of sample dispensing and efficiently carrying out tests of a plurality of items. An intermediate disk (disk) is set so that an A-cycle for carrying out an operation for pretreatment and B-cycles for carrying out operations for dispensing a sample to a reaction disk and a flow analysis mechanism serving as test mechanisms are combined to use n-units of the B-cycles as a dispensing operation cycle time period of the sample. Therefore, the timing of sampling can be efficiently aligned so that the test of an item having a short analysis cycle can be carried out during the test of an item having a long analysis cycle, and so that the tests of an item having a large number of requests can be carried out during the test of the item having a small number of requests.

Abstract: An SPM probe includes: an SPM cantilever; a thermal resistance formed at a probe portion of the SPM cantilever; an insulating film formed on the thermal resistance; and one wire for converting the micro-scale energy source into heat or propagating light, formed on the insulating film.

Abstract: An object of this invention is to provide a charged particle beam apparatus that can easily evaluate the stability of a position that is irradiated with a charged particle beam. To achieve the above object, this invention includes a detector that scans a charged particle beam and detects secondary particles that originate from a substrate, and an image processer that displays an image of the substrate on a display based on the secondary particles that are detected by the detector. The image processer is configured to display on the display any two or more members of the group consisting of a scanning image produced by the charged particle beam of the substrate, a wave in time domain showing fluctuations of the irradiation position of the charged particle beam on the substrate, and a power spectrum of the wave in time domain.

Abstract: A pump device which accurately detects a flow rate of a pump, performs real-time control of the flow rate, and thus can suppress a flow rate error caused by occurrence of pulsation. Control of a pump rotation speed by a pressure sensor has low responsiveness in a low pressure region, and a correlation between a pressure and a flow rate is incomplete in a high flow rate region. With this taken into consideration, a flow rate sensor is disposed at an outlet port of a second pump. A position detection sensor detects a point where a first pump is shifted from a suction mode to a discharge mode. Moreover, the flow rate sensor detects that there is no discharge from the pump, and that there is discharge from the pump alone. Accordingly, a controller sets a rotation speed of a motor to a speed double the previous speed (double the normal rotation speed).

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a scanning electron microscope having a function for positioning an object point of an objective lens at a defined position even under an electronic optical condition in which it is difficult to accurately control the position of the object point of the objective lens. A deflector is provided to deflect an electron beam in order to detect the object point and located at a desired position of the object point of the objective lens. The deflector is not used to scan a sample with the electron beam. The scanning electron microscope has a function for automatically adjusting the position of the object point to ensure that the object point of the objective lens is located at the position of the object point detection deflector by using a characteristic in which a displacement of an image by the deflector is minimal when the object point is located at the position of the deflector.

Abstract: An electrophoretic apparatus that allows bubbles to be readily removed out of an electrophoretic passage. The passage for electrophoretic medium, at a connecting section where capillaries filled with electrophoretic medium are connected with a pumping mechanism for filling the electrophoretic medium, is arranged such that the side of the pumping mechanism is disposed below the side of the capillaries, so that the electrophoretic medium flows from down to up at the connecting section when filling the electrophoretic medium into the capillaries. Preferably, the passage between the capillary array and the buffer solution is controlled by using a rotary-type valve having high withstand pressure to simplify the passage structure. The dead volume of the passage can be reduced and the valuable electrophoretic medium can be efficiently used. The amount of used electrophoretic medium required for the removal of the bubble can be also reduced.

Abstract: In the case of die-to-die comparison, threshold processing units process the differential image between the image of a sample chip and the images of left and right adjacent chips using a second threshold value lower than a first threshold value thereby to determine a defect candidate for the sample chip. Further, threshold processing units process the differential image using the first threshold value. The defect candidates which develops a signal not smaller than the first threshold is detected as a defect. Also in the cell-to-cell comparison, the differential image is first processed by the second threshold value to determine a defect candidate, and the differential image is further processed by the first threshold value. The defect candidates which develops a signal not smaller than the first threshold value is detected as a defect.

Abstract: It is facilitated in a scanning electron microscope to save the labor of executing the reproduction test, conduct basic analysis on a problem caused in execution of the automatic observation process, and confirm details resulting in the error. Upon detecting an error from an abnormality, the scanning electron microscope extracts a sample image lm(t2) obtained by retroceding from a sample image lm(te) stored so as to be associated with time te of error occurrence by a predetermined video quantity (for example, total recording time period t2) previously set and registered by an input-output device, from sample images stored in a recording device while being overwritten, and stores a resultant sample image in another recording device.

Abstract: Provided is a scanning electron microscope including: an image recording unit (112) which stores a plurality of acquired frame images; a correction analyzing handling unit (113) which calculates a drift amount between frame images and a drift amount between a plurality of field images constituting a frame image; and a data handling unit (111) which corrects positions of respective field images constituting the plurality of fields images according to the drift amount between the field images and superimposes the field images on one another so as to create a new frame image. This provides a scanning electron microscope which can obtain a clear frame image even if an image drift is caused during observation of a pattern on a semiconductor substrate or an insulating object.

Abstract: The present invention provides an optical inspection method capable of detecting a finer defect in the surface of a substrate, including the steps of: irradiating a surface of a sample which is rotating and continuously moving in one direction with illumination light which is incident in a direction obliquely to the sample surface; detecting an image of light formed by a forward scattering light around an optical axis of regular-reflection light while excluding the regular-reflection light from the sample surface irradiated with the illumination light; condensing and detecting lateral scattering light which scatters laterally from the sample surface with respect to an incidence direction of the illumination light; and processing a signal obtained by detecting the image of light formed by the forward scattering light and a signal obtained by condensing and detecting the lateral scattering light to extract a defect including a scratch defect.

Abstract: While an illumination optical system 2 is irradiating the surface of a contaminated standard wafer 110 with illumination light, this illumination light is scanned over the surface of the contaminated standard wafer 110, then detectors 31 to 34 of a detection optical system 3 each detect the light scattered from the surface of the contaminated standard wafer 110, next a predefined reference value in addition to detection results on the scattered light is used to calculate a compensation parameter “Comp” for detection sensitivity correction of photomultiplier tubes 331 to 334 of the detectors 31 to 34, and the compensation parameter “Comp” is separated into a time-varying deterioration parameter “P”, an optical characteristics parameter “Opt”, and a sensor characteristics parameter “Lr”, and correspondingly managed. This makes it easy to calibrate the detection sensitivity.