Patents by Inventor Kei Sakai

Kei Sakai has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 12354829
    Abstract: The present invention enables an overlay error between processors to be measured from a pattern image, the SN ratio of which is low. To this end, the present invention forms a secondary electron image 200 from a detection signal of a secondary electron detector 107, forms a reflected electron image 210 from a detection signal of a reflected electron detector 109, creates a SUMLINE profile 701 that is obtained by adding luminance information in the reflected electron image along the longitudinal direction of a line pattern, and calculates an overlay error of a sample by using position information about an upper layer pattern detected from the secondary electron image and position information about a lower layer pattern that is detected by using an estimation line pattern 801 estimated on the basis of the SUMLINE profile from the reflected electron image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2025
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Masaki Sugie, Kei Sakai
  • Patent number: 12347074
    Abstract: Proposed is a technique that can detect a random noise component at high accuracy without measurement pattern limitation and enables edge roughness measurement at higher accuracy. According to this disclosure, pattern matching and edge position correction are performed with respect to each of the left edge and the right edge of a line pattern in an obtained line pattern image, and an image with no roughness is generated. A PSD value is measured from the image, and the average PSD value of all the frequencies is determined as a random noise component, so that the random noise component can be detected at high accuracy. Further, the PSD value (random noise component) is subtracted from the PSD value of an original image, thereby measuring edge roughness at high accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Toshimasa Kameda, Kei Sakai, Junichi Kakuta
  • Patent number: 12198327
    Abstract: The present invention proposes a technique for enabling the execution of measurement processing without referring to a design drawing for which it is difficult to adjust or obtain parameters for image processing that requires knowhow. This measurement system according to the present disclosure refers to a learning model generated on the basis of teaching data, which is generated from a sample image of a semiconductor, and the sample image, generates a region-segmented image from an input image (measurement subject) of a semiconductor having a predetermined structure, and uses the region-segmented image to perform image measurement. Here, the teaching data is an image in which labels, which include a structure of the semiconductor in the sample image, are assigned to each pixel of the image, and the learning model includes parameters for deducing teaching data from the sample image (see indicator 1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2025
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Ryou Yumiba, Kei Sakai, Satoru Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20250014858
    Abstract: Provided is a correction method capable of reducing defocus in an image caused by variations in height of a semiconductor pattern by image processing performed after imaging. This correction method for correcting an image includes: acquiring a target image 801 in which a semiconductor pattern having a plurality of areas the height of which varies step-wisely is imaged; storing a plurality of correction coefficients C1 and the like for correcting the respective areas of the acquired target image 801; and correcting the respective areas of the target image 801 using the stored plurality of correction coefficients C1 and the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 29, 2021
    Publication date: January 9, 2025
    Inventors: Tomoaki YAMAZAKI, Kei SAKAI
  • Publication number: 20230343547
    Abstract: The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a technology for calculating a machine difference correction coefficient more efficiently with high accuracy. A defect inspection device according to the present disclosure calculates a machine difference correction coefficient for correcting a difference in the feature amount of a reference sample between devices, and when a machine difference variation coefficient indicating the change over time in the feature amount of a calibration member is outside a threshold range, recalculates the machine difference correction coefficient by using the feature amount of the calibration member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2020
    Publication date: October 26, 2023
    Inventors: Miki AOYAGI, Masumi SHIRAI, Kei SAKAI
  • Patent number: 11791130
    Abstract: The objective of the present invention is to reduce differences between individual electron beam observation devices accurately by means of image correction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Koichi Hamada, Megumi Kimura, Momoyo Enyama, Ryou Yumiba, Makoto Sakakibara, Kei Sakai, Satoru Yamaguchi, Katsumi Setoguchi, Masumi Shirai, Yasunori Takasugi
  • Publication number: 20230314128
    Abstract: A processing system and a charged particle beam apparatus for the purpose of determining the degree of growth or the presence or absence of a defect in an epitaxial layer grown in a groove or a hole such as between inner spacers from an image of the groove or the hole are proposed. In a processing system including a computer system, the computer system calculates a distance and a brightness value related to a layer between a plurality of structures from a signal profile in accordance with one direction on a two-dimensional plane related to the layer, which is obtained by irradiating the layer with an electron beam, and determines or outputs a state of the layer based on the distance and the brightness value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2023
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Masaya GOTO, Kei SAKAI, Satoru YAMAGUCHI, Junichi KAKUTA
  • Patent number: 11670481
    Abstract: To shorten a time required for evaluation of a recipe while suppressing an increase in a data amount. A charged particle beam device includes a microscope that scans a charged particle beam on a sample, detects secondary particles emitted from the sample, and outputs a detection signal and a computer system that generates a frame image based on the detection signal and processes an image based on the frame images. The computer system calculates a moment image between a plurality of the frame images, and calculates a feature amount data of the frame image based on a moment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Motonobu Hommi, Satoru Yamaguchi, Kei Sakai, Hiroshi Nishihama
  • Patent number: 11626266
    Abstract: Provided is a charged particle beam device capable of focusing with high accuracy even when a charged particle beam has a large off-axis amount. The charged particle beam device generates an observation image of a sample by irradiating the sample with a charged particle beam, and includes: a deflection unit that inclines the charged particle beam; a focusing lens that focuses the charged particle beam; an adjustment unit that adjusts a lens strength of the focusing lens based on an evaluation value calculated from the observation image; a storage unit that stores a relationship between a visual field movement amount and the lens strength; and a filter setting unit that calculates the visual field movement amount based on an inclination angle of the charged particle beam and the relationship, and sets an image filter to be superimposed on the observation image based on the calculated visual field movement amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichiro Hitomi, Kenji Tanimoto, Yusuke Abe, Takuma Yamamoto, Kei Sakai, Satoru Yamaguchi, Yasunori Goto, Shuuichirou Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20230095456
    Abstract: Roughness measurement corrects a machine difference utilizing first PSD data indicating power spectral density of a line pattern measured for a line pattern formed on a wafer for machine difference management by a reference machine in roughness index calculation and second PSD data indicating power spectral density of a line pattern measured for the line pattern formed on the wafer for machine difference management by a correction target machine are used to obtain a correction method for correcting the power spectral density of the second PSD data to the power spectral density of the first PSD data, power spectral density of a line pattern is measured as third PSD data from a scanning image of the line pattern, and corrected power spectral density obtained by correcting the power spectral density of the third PSD data by the obtained correction method is calculated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Publication date: March 30, 2023
    Applicant: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Daisuke BIZEN, Kei SAKAI, Junichi KAKUTA, Masumi SHIRAI, Minoru YAMAZAKI
  • Publication number: 20220319804
    Abstract: The present invention enables an overlay error between processors to be measured from a pattern image, the SN ratio of which is low. To this end, the present invention forms a secondary electron image 200 from a detection signal of a secondary electron detector 107, forms a reflected electron image 210 from a detection signal of a reflected electron detector 109, creates a SUMLINE profile 701 that is obtained by adding luminance information in the reflected electron image along the longitudinal direction of a line pattern, and calculates an overlay error of a sample by using position information about an upper layer pattern detected from the secondary electron image and position information about a lower layer pattern that is detected by using an estimation line pattern 801 estimated on the basis of the SUMLINE profile from the reflected electron image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2019
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventors: Masaki SUGIE, Kei SAKAI
  • Publication number: 20220277434
    Abstract: The present invention proposes a technique for enabling the execution of measurement processing without referring to a design drawing for which it is difficult to adjust or obtain parameters for image processing that requires knowhow. This measurement system according to the present disclosure refers to a learning model generated on the basis of teaching data, which is generated from a sample image of a semiconductor, and the sample image, generates a region-segmented image from an input image (measurement subject) of a semiconductor having a predetermined structure, and uses the region-segmented image to perform image measurement. Here, the teaching data is an image in which labels, which include a structure of the semiconductor in the sample image, are assigned to each pixel of the image, and the learning model includes parameters for deducing teaching data from the sample image (see indicator 1).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Publication date: September 1, 2022
    Inventors: Ryou YUMIBA, Kei SAKAI, Satoru YAMAGUCHI
  • Publication number: 20220230281
    Abstract: Proposed is a technique that can detect a random noise component at high accuracy without measurement pattern limitation and enables edge roughness measurement at higher accuracy. According to this disclosure, pattern matching and edge position correction are performed with respect to each of the left edge and the right edge of a line pattern in an obtained line pattern image, and an image with no roughness is generated. A PSD value is measured from the image, and the average PSD value of all the frequencies is determined as a random noise component, so that the random noise component can be detected at high accuracy. Further, the PSD value (random noise component) is subtracted from the PSD value of an original image, thereby measuring edge roughness at high accuracy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2021
    Publication date: July 21, 2022
    Inventors: Toshimasa Kameda, Kei Sakai, Junichi Kakuta
  • Publication number: 20220165537
    Abstract: To shorten a time required for evaluation of a recipe while suppressing an increase in a data amount. A charged particle beam device includes a microscope that scans a charged particle beam on a sample, detects secondary particles emitted from the sample, and outputs a detection signal and a computer system that generates a frame image based on the detection signal and processes an image based on the frame images. The computer system calculates a moment image between a plurality of the frame images, and calculates a feature amount data of the frame image based on a moment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2021
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Inventors: Motonobu HOMMI, Satoru YAMAGUCHI, Kei SAKAI, Hiroshi NISHIHAMA
  • Publication number: 20220130638
    Abstract: Provided is a charged particle beam device capable of focusing with high accuracy even when a charged particle beam has a large off-axis amount. The charged particle beam device generates an observation image of a sample by irradiating the sample with a charged particle beam, and includes: a deflection unit that inclines the charged particle beam; a focusing lens that focuses the charged particle beam; an adjustment unit that adjusts a lens strength of the focusing lens based on an evaluation value calculated from the observation image; a storage unit that stores a relationship between a visual field movement amount and the lens strength; and a filter setting unit that calculates the visual field movement amount based on an inclination angle of the charged particle beam and the relationship, and sets an image filter to be superimposed on the observation image based on the calculated visual field movement amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2021
    Publication date: April 28, 2022
    Applicant: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichiro HITOMI, Kenji TANIMOTO, Yusuke ABE, Takuma YAMAMOTO, Kei SAKAI, Satoru YAMAGUCHI, Yasunori GOTO, Shuuichirou TAKAHASHI
  • Publication number: 20220051868
    Abstract: The objective of the present invention is to reduce differences between individual electron beam observation devices accurately by means of image correction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2019
    Publication date: February 17, 2022
    Inventors: Koichi HAMADA, Megumi KIMURA, Momoyo ENYAMA, Ryou YUMIBA, Makoto SAKAKIBARA, Kei SAKAI, Satoru YAMAGUCHI, Katsumi SETOGUCHI, Masumi SHIRAI, Yasunori TAKASUGI
  • Patent number: 11177112
    Abstract: The present invention proposes a pattern measurement tool characterized by being provided with: a charged-particle beam sub-system having a tilt deflector; and a computer sub-system which is connected to the charged-particle beam sub-system and which is for executing measurement of a pattern on the basis of a signal obtained by said charged-particle beam sub-system, wherein the charged-particle beam sub-system acquires at least two signal profiles by scanning beams having at least two incidence angles, the computer sub-system measures the dimension between one end and the other end of the pattern on the basis of the at least two signal profiles, calculates the difference between the two measurements, and calculates the height of the pattern by inputting the difference value determined by said calculation into a relational formula indicating the relation between the height of the pattern and said difference value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Satoru Yamaguchi, Kei Sakai, Makoto Suzuki, Ryota Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11170969
    Abstract: Provided is an electron beam observation device that includes: an electron source; an objective lens concentrating an electron beam emitted from the electron source; and a control unit configured to perform control such that a plurality of images is generated by capturing images of a reference sample having a specific pattern, and a frequency characteristic is calculated for each of the plurality of images, in which an image is generated based on a secondary signal generated from a sample due to irradiation of the sample with the electron beam, and the control unit holds the plurality of frequency characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
    Inventors: Koichi Hamada, Megumi Kimura, Momoyo Enyama, Ryou Yumiba, Makoto Sakakibara, Kei Sakai, Satoru Yamaguchi, Katsumi Setoguchi
  • Patent number: 11011346
    Abstract: To acquire a correction image by performing a sub-pixel shift process for shifting an image using a pixel interpolation filter by a pixel shift amount between pixels and a frequency correction process for correcting a frequency characteristic of the image after shifted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
    Inventors: Koichi Hamada, Kei Sakai, Satoru Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20210125806
    Abstract: Provided is an electron beam observation device that includes: an electron source; an objective lens concentrating an electron beam emitted from the electron source; and a control unit configured to perform control such that a plurality of images is generated by capturing images of a reference sample having a specific pattern, and a frequency characteristic is calculated for each of the plurality of images, in which an image is generated based on a secondary signal generated from a sample due to irradiation of the sample with the electron beam, and the control unit holds the plurality of frequency characteristics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2018
    Publication date: April 29, 2021
    Inventors: Koichi HAMADA, Megumi KIMURA, Momoyo ENYAMA, Ryou YUMIBA, Makoto SAKAKIBARA, Kei SAKAI, Satoru YAMAGUCHI, Katsumi SETOGUCHI