Patents by Inventor Kotoko Hirose

Kotoko Hirose 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: 8772732
    Abstract: Disclosed is a scanning charged particle beam apparatus equipped with an aberration corrector, contrived to eliminate resolution degradation in tilt observation by a chromatic third-order aperture aberration without relying on a specific optical system. A controller of the scanning charged particle beam apparatus provides a chromatic third-order aperture aberration measurement method relevant to tilt observation of a specimen. Further, the controller has a chromatic aberration control function relevant to tilt observation of a specimen. By means of the chromatic aberration control function, the controller controls a chromatic aberration to be positive or negative, rather than remaining at 0, in order to eliminate an image blur which occurs in a direction parallel to the specimen surface due to a chromatic third-order aperture aberration and a chromatic aberration at a tilt angle (t1) under observation and another tilt angle (?t1) axially opposite to the tilt angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Tomonori Nakano, Takeshi Kawasaki, Kotoko Hirose
  • Patent number: 8581190
    Abstract: Disclosed is a scanning charged particle microscope provided with an aberration measuring means that measures high-order geometrical aberration at high precision and high speed. An image obtained by a single-hole aperture and an image obtained by a multiple-hole aperture arranged in a region larger than that for the single-hole aperture are deconvoluted, an aberration quantity is determined based on the profiles of beams tilted in a plurality of directions and the obtained quantity is fed back to an aberration corrector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Tomonori Nakano, Takeshi Kawasaki, Kotoko Hirose, Hiroyuki Ito
  • Patent number: 8558171
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Kotoko Hirose, Takeshi Kawasaki, Tomonori Nakano
  • Patent number: 8436899
    Abstract: A tilted illumination observation method and observation device with easy adjustment, high speed, good reproducibility and low cost is provided. A high resolution tilt image of a specimen is obtained by extracting the blurring on the scanning spot occurring during beam tilt from the image (step 6) captured by the tilted beam, and the image (step 4) captured from directly above the standard specimen; and then deconvoluting (step 11, 12) the tilted image of the target specimen (step 10) using the extracted scanning spot from the oblique beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Takeshi Kawasaki, Tomonori Nakano, Kotoko Hirose
  • Patent number: 8258475
    Abstract: There is provided a charged particle radiation device provided with an aberration corrector capable of correcting aberration with high precision in a short time by automatically setting an aberration coefficient measuring condition to thereby realize measurement with high precision. The charged particle radiation device has a feature that a value of defocus and a value of astigma, occurring owing to aberration at the time of the beam tilting, are estimated on the basis of results of aberration measurement, thereby adjusting an electron optical system on the basis of these values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Kotoko Hirose, Takeshi Kawasaki, Tomonori Nakano
  • Publication number: 20120199739
    Abstract: Disclosed is a scanning charged particle beam apparatus equipped with an aberration corrector, contrived to eliminate resolution degradation in tilt observation by a chromatic third-order aperture aberration without relying on a specific optical system. A controller of the scanning charged particle beam apparatus provides a chromatic third-order aperture aberration measurement method relevant to tilt observation of a specimen. Further, the controller has a chromatic aberration control function relevant to tilt observation of a specimen. By means of the chromatic aberration control function, the controller controls a chromatic aberration to be positive or negative, rather than remaining at 0, in order to eliminate an image blur which occurs in a direction parallel to the specimen surface due to a chromatic third-order aperture aberration and a chromatic aberration at a tilt angle (t1) under observation and another tilt angle (?t1) axially opposite to the tilt angle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2010
    Publication date: August 9, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomonori Nakano, Takeshi Kawasaki, Kotoko Hirose
  • Patent number: 8129680
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Kotoko Hirose, Takeshi Kawasaki, Tomonori Nakano
  • Publication number: 20110272578
    Abstract: There is provided a charged particle radiation device provided with an aberration corrector capable of correcting aberration with high precision in a short time by automatically setting an aberration coefficient measuring condition to thereby realize measurement with high precision. The charged particle radiation device has a feature that a value of defocus and a value of astigma, occurring owing to aberration at the time of the beam tilting, are estimated on the basis of results of aberration measurement, thereby adjusting an electron optical system on the basis of these values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2010
    Publication date: November 10, 2011
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kotoko Hirose, Takeshi Kawasaki, Tomonori Nakano
  • Publication number: 20110139980
    Abstract: Disclosed is a scanning charged particle microscope provided with an aberration measuring means that measures high-order geometrical aberration at high precision and high speed. An image obtained by a single-hole aperture and an image obtained by a multiple-hole aperture arranged in a region larger than that for the single-hole aperture are deconvoluted, an aberration quantity is determined based on the profiles of beams tilted in a plurality of directions and the obtained quantity is fed back to an aberration corrector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2009
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomonori Nakano, Takeshi Kawasaki, Kotoko Hirose, Hiroyuki Ito
  • Patent number: 7915582
    Abstract: A method for estimation of a probe shape, in a scanning electron microscope provided with an aberration corrector, and the method is designed so as to obtain a probe image, by inputting to a computer an image taken in a just-focused state and an image taken in a de-focused state, as an image data; preparing a correlation window by automatically determining a size of a correlation window image, based on an input data size and an output data size; executing cross-correlation calculation between the correlation window and a reference area; and repeating this calculation while shifting the reference area, so as to obtain a cross-correlation matrix, in order to stably obtain the probe image, without receiving effects of use conditions or noises.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Kotoko Hirose, Takeshi Kawasaki, Haruo Yoda, Tomonori Nakano
  • Patent number: 7834326
    Abstract: The present invention provides an aberration corrector giving excellent assembly accuracy but having fewer parts and fewer adjustment locations in number. In order to achieve it, a multistage multipole is formed by arranging plural combinations of electrodes around an optical axis using alignment blocks, each combination of electrodes being made by brazing-integrating plural electrodes with a ceramic material interposed therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Takeshi Kawasaki, Noboru Moriya, Tomonori Nakano, Kotoko Hirose
  • Patent number: 7714286
    Abstract: A charged particle beam apparatus includes: a correction image acquisition part 52 for making a detector 20 acquire items of two-dimensional image data at different focal positions; a directional differentiation operation part 53 for obtaining directional derivative values in a plurality of directions for each of the items of two-dimensional image data at different focal positions; an aberration parameter calculation part 54 for obtaining aberration parameters according to previously determined methods by using the directional derivative values in a plurality of directions for each of the items of two-dimensional image data; an aberration correction value calculation part 55 for obtaining correction values for aberrations by using the aberration parameters; and a control part 56 for setting the correction values in a correction optical system control means to make an aberration corrector 16 correct the aberrations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Tomonori Nakano, Takeshi Kawasaki, Kotoko Hirose, Makoto Ezumi
  • Publication number: 20100033560
    Abstract: A tilted illumination observation method and observation device with easy adjustment, high speed, good reproducibility and low cost is provided. A high resolution tilt image of a specimen is obtained by extracting the blurring on the scanning spot occurring during beam tilt from the image (step 6) captured by the tilted beam, and the image (step 4) captured from directly above the standard specimen; and then deconvoluting (step 11, 12) the tilted image of the target specimen (step 10) using the extracted scanning spot from the oblique beam.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2009
    Publication date: February 11, 2010
    Inventors: Takeshi Kawasaki, Tomonori Nakano, Kotoko Hirose
  • Publication number: 20090039281
    Abstract: The present invention provides an aberration corrector giving excellent assembly accuracy but having fewer parts and fewer adjustment locations in number. In order to achieve it, a multistage multipole is formed by arranging plural combinations of electrodes around an optical axis using alignment blocks, each combination of electrodes being made by brazing-integrating plural electrodes with a ceramic material interposed therebetween.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2008
    Publication date: February 12, 2009
    Inventors: Takeshi KAWASAKI, Noboru Moriya, Tomonori Nakano, Kotoko Hirose
  • Publication number: 20090008550
    Abstract: A charged particle beam apparatus includes: a correction image acquisition part 52 for making a detector 20 acquire items of two-dimensional image data at different focal positions; a directional differentiation operation part 53 for obtaining directional derivative values in a plurality of directions for each of the items of two-dimensional image data at different focal positions; an aberration parameter calculation part 54 for obtaining aberration parameters according to previously determined methods by using the directional derivative values in a plurality of directions for each of the items of two-dimensional image data; an aberration correction value calculation part 55 for obtaining correction values for aberrations by using the aberration parameters; and a control part 56 for setting the correction values in a correction optical system control means to make an aberration corrector 16 correct the aberrations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2008
    Publication date: January 8, 2009
    Inventors: Tomonori Nakano, Takeshi Kawasaki, Kotoko Hirose, Makoto Ezumi