Patents Assigned to ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft
  • Patent number: 7659514
    Abstract: An assembly for a detection unit for an optical device is described. The assembly includes a scintillator adapted to received secondary particles and, in response, generate photons, wherein the scintillator includes an opening for trespassing of a primary beam through the scintillator. The scintillator including the opening is asymmetrical with regard to one axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2010
    Assignee: ICT, Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Pavel Adamec
  • Patent number: 7652263
    Abstract: A focussing lens for focussing a charged particle beam onto a specimen at a predetermined landing angle. The focussing lens comprises at least one first electrode having a first aperture to generate a focussing electric field for focussing the charged particle beam onto the specimen and a correcting electrode having a curved surface to compensate for landing angle dependent distortions of the focussing electric field caused by the specimen. With the curved surface of the correcting electrode, it is possible to improve the focussing of a charged particle beam at landing angles that differ from the perpendicular landing angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2010
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Hans-Peter Feuerbaum
  • Patent number: 7638777
    Abstract: The present invention provides a charged particle beam device. The device comprises an emitter array for emitting a plurality of charged particle beams. The plurality of charged particle beams are imaged with a lens. An electrode unit is provided for accelerating the plurality of charged particle beams. The potential differences between a first potential of the emitter array, a second potential of the electrode unit, and a third potential of a specimen, are controlled by a first control unit and a second control unit. Thereby, the second potential is capable of accelerating the plurality of charged particle beams with respect to the first potential, and the third potential is capable of decelerating the plurality of charged particle beams with respect to the second potential.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2009
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Hans-Peter Feuerbaum, Jürgen Frosien, Uli Hoffmann, Dieter Winkler, Pavel Adamec
  • Patent number: 7633074
    Abstract: A charged particle beam apparatus with a charged particle beam source including an emitter with an emitter tip and a supporting member for supporting the emitter is provided. Further, the apparatus includes an emitter location measuring device for repeatedly measuring the location of the emitter and a deflector system for compensating variations in the location of the emitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2009
    Assignee: ICT, Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Jürgen Frosien
  • Patent number: 7629578
    Abstract: The invention provides a charged particle beam device for irradiating a specimen, comprising a particle source for providing a beam of charged particles, an optical device for directing the beam of charged particles onto the specimen and an ozone unit for reducing the charging and/or contamination of the specimen. The ozone unit comprises a supply of ozone and a specimen nozzle unit for directing an ozone gas flow to the specimen. Further, the invention provides a charged particle beam device for irradiating a specimen comprising a particle source for providing a beam of charged particles, an optical device for directing the beam of charged particles onto the specimen, a detector and a gas unit for reducing the charging and/or contamination of the detector. The gas unit comprises a supply of gas and a detector nozzle unit for directing a gas flow to the detector. Further, the present invention provides methods for operating charged particle beam devices according to the present invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2009
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Juergen Frosien, Yacov Elgar
  • Publication number: 20090289185
    Abstract: A focused ion beam device is described comprising a gas field ion source with an analyzer for analyzing and classifying the structure of a specimen, a controller for controlling and/or modifying the structure of the specimen according to the analysis of the analyzer, an emitter tip, the emitter tip has a base tip comprising a first material and a supertip comprising a material different from the first material, wherein the supertip is a single atom tip and the base tip is a single crystal base tip. Furthermore, the focused ion beam device has a probe current control and a sample charge control. A method of operating a focused ion beam device is provided comprising applying a voltage between a single emission centre of the supertip and an electrode, supplying gas to the emitter tip, analyzing and classifying the structure of a specimen, and controlling the structure of the specimen.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2008
    Publication date: November 26, 2009
    Applicant: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Juergen FROSIEN, Dieter WINKLER, Udo WEIGEL, Stefan GRIMM
  • Publication number: 20090289191
    Abstract: A focused ion beam device is described comprising a gas field ion source with an emitter emitting an ion beam including ions of gas, an ion beam column and a beam current control loop comprising a beam current measurement device. Furthermore, the focused ion beam device may have a sample charge control comprising measuring the sample charge. A method of operating a focused ion beam device is provided comprising applying a voltage between an emitter an electrode, applying gas to the emitter, emitting ions of a gas from the emitter and controlling a beam current by measuring the beam current with a beam current measurement device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2008
    Publication date: November 26, 2009
    Applicant: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Juergen FROSIEN
  • Patent number: 7595490
    Abstract: A method for operating a charged particle beam emitting device and, in particular, an electron beam emitting device including a cold field emitter is provided. The method includes the steps of placing the cold field emitter in a vacuum of a given pressure, the emitter exhibiting a high initial emission current I0 and a lower stable mean emission current IS under a given electric extraction field; applying the given electric extraction field to the emitter for emitting electrons from the emitter surface; performing a cleaning process by applying at least one heating pulse to the cold field emitter for heating the emitter surface, whereby the cleaning process is performed before the emission current of the cold field emitter has declined to the lower stable mean emission value IS; and repeating the cleaning process to keep the emission current of the emitter continuously above the substantially stable emission value IS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2009
    Assignee: ICT, Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Fang Zhou, Pavel Adamec, Jürgen Frosien, Jimmy Vishnipolsky
  • Patent number: 7592590
    Abstract: The invention provides a charged particle beam device and a method of operation thereof. An emitter (2) emits a primary charged particle beam (12). Depending on the action of a deflection system, which comprises at least three deflection stages (14), it can be switched between at least two detection units (16, 44). Further, beam shaping means (15; 41) is provided and a lens for focusing at the primary charged particle beam on a specimen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2009
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft für Halbleiterprüftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Jüergen Frosien
  • Patent number: 7589328
    Abstract: A focused ion beam device is described. The device includes an ion beam column including an enclosure for housing an emitter with an emitter area for generating ions, a first gas inlet adapted to introduce a first gas to the emitter area, a second gas inlet adapted to introduce a second gas different from the first gas to the emitter area, and a switching unit adapted to switch between introducing the first gas and introducing the second gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2009
    Assignee: ICT, Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Juergen Frosien, Dieter Winkler
  • Patent number: 7586093
    Abstract: The invention refers to an apparatus (10) for inspecting a sample (12) of a specimen (14) by means of an electron beam (34) comprising a vacuum chamber (18); an ion beam device (20) for generating an ion beam (22) used for etching a sample (12) from the specimen (14) within said vacuum chamber (18); an electron beam device (30) having a scanning unit (32) for scanning the electron beam (34) across said specimen (14) within said vacuum chamber (18); said electron beam device (30) having a first detector (36) positioned to detect electrons (38) that are released from the specimen (14) in a backward direction with respect to the direction of the electron beam (34); and said electron beam device (30) having a second detector (40) positioned to detect electrons (42) that are released from the sample (12) of the specimen (14) in a forward direction with respect to the direction of the electron beam (34); and separation means (50; 52) within said vacuum chamber (18) to separate the sample (12) from the specimen (14)
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: ICT, Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Hans-Peter Feuerbaum
  • Patent number: 7576917
    Abstract: The invention provides a lens system for a plurality of charged particle beams. Therein, at least one common excitation coil for at least two lens modules is provided. The lens modules comprise an first pole piece, a second pole piece and at least one opening for a charged particle beam. The lens modules constitute a component and share the excitation coil. Thereby, raw material availability, processing of work pieces and symmetry conditions for the lens fields are improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2009
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft für Halbleiterprüftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Stefan Lanio
  • Publication number: 20090146074
    Abstract: A method of operating a focused ion beam device having a gas field ion source is described. According to some embodiments, the method includes emitting an ion beam from a gas field ion source, providing an ion beam column ion beam energy in the ion beam column which is higher than the final beam energy, decelerating the ion beam for providing a final beam energy on impingement of the ion beam on the specimen of 1 keV to 4 keV, and imaging the specimen.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Publication date: June 11, 2009
    Applicant: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fuer Halbleiterprueftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Helmut BANZHOF, Juergen FROSIEN, Dieter WINKLER
  • Patent number: 7544937
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a charged particle device with improved detection scheme. The device has a charged particle source providing a beam of primary charged particles; a first unit for providing a potential; a second unit for providing a potential; and a center unit positioned between the first unit and the second unit. The center unit is capable of providing a potential different from the potential of the first and the second unit for decelerating the primary charged particles to a first low energy and for accelerating the primary charged particles to a second high energy. Therein, the first unit and/or the second unit is a detector for detecting secondary electrons released at a specimen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2009
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik GmbH
    Inventor: Juergen Frosien
  • Publication number: 20090121160
    Abstract: A charged particle beam device is described. The device includes an emitter unit including an emitter tip; a voltage supply unit adapted for providing a stable voltage to generate a stable extraction field at the emitter tip; a pulsed voltage supply member adapted for providing a pulsed voltage to generate a pulsed extraction field on top of the stable extraction field; a measuring unit for measuring an emitter characteristic; and a control unit adapted for receiving a signal from the measuring unit and for control of the pulsed voltage supply member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2008
    Publication date: May 14, 2009
    Applicant: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Dieter Winkler, Udo Weigel, Stefan Grimm
  • Publication number: 20090101819
    Abstract: An electron beam apparatus and a method for providing an energy-filtered primary electron beam are described. Therein, a primary electron beam having an asymmetric first energy distribution is generated by means of an electron source. The primary electron beam is high-pass energy filtered using a retarding lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2008
    Publication date: April 23, 2009
    Applicant: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: FANG ZHOU, JURGEN FROSIEN, PAVEL ADAMEC
  • Patent number: 7507956
    Abstract: The present invention provides a charged particle beam energy width reduction system. The system comprises a first element acting in a focusing and dispersive manner in an x-z-plane; a second element acting in a focusing and dispersive manner in the x-z-plane; a charged particle selection element positioned between the first and the second element acting in a focusing and dispersive manner; and a focusing element positioned between the first and the second element acting in a focusing and dispersive manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2009
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft für Halbleiterprüftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Jürgen Frosien, Ralf Degenhardt, Stefan Lanio
  • Patent number: 7501638
    Abstract: A charged particle beam emitting device includes at least two charged particle beam guns, each of the at least two charged particle beam guns having a separate charged particle emitter with an emitting surface for emitting a respective charged particle beam. The charged particle beam emitting device further includes an aperture element comprising at least one aperture opening and a deflector unit. The deflector unit is adapted for alternatively directing the charged particle beams of the at least two charged particle beam guns on the at least one aperture opening so that, at the same time, one of the at least two charged particle beams is directed on the aperture opening while the respective other charged particle beam of the at least two charged particle beams is deflected from the aperture opening by the deflector unit. At the same time, only one of the two charged particle beam guns is used so that the temporarily unused charged particle beam gun can be subjected to a cleaning procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2009
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft für Halbeiterprüftechnik mbH
    Inventor: Fang Zhou
  • Publication number: 20090057566
    Abstract: A gas field ion source is described for a charged particle beam device having a charged particle beam column. The gas field ion source includes an emitter unit, a cooling unit, and a thermal conductivity unit for thermal conductivity from the cooling unit to the emitter unit, wherein the thermal conductivity unit is adapted for reduction of vibration transfer from the cooling unit to the emitter unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 27, 2008
    Publication date: March 5, 2009
    Applicant: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fuer Halbleiterprueftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Dieter WINKLER, Thomas JASINSKI
  • Publication number: 20090039280
    Abstract: A lens assembly having a magnetic lens assembly for a charged particle beam system is provided. The lens assembly includes: a first pole piece having a connecting portion of the first pole piece and a gap portion of the first pole piece, a second pole piece having a connecting portion of the second pole piece and a gap portion of the second pole piece, wherein the first pole piece and the second pole piece provide a gap at the respective gap portions, a coil for exciting the magnetic lens assembly, a centering element comprising a material that has a smaller Young's modulus than the material of the first and the material of the second pole piece, wherein the pole pieces are connected with each other at the respective connecting portions and have a centering element receiving portion towards the respective gap portion ends of the pole pieces.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2008
    Publication date: February 12, 2009
    Applicant: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Pavel ADAMEC, Carlo SALVESEN, Ivo LISKA