Patents by Inventor Muneki Hamashima
Muneki Hamashima 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).
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Patent number: 7095022Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for irradiating a sample with primary electron beams to detect secondary electron beams generated from a surface of the sample by the irradiation for evaluating the sample surface. In the electron beam apparatus, an electron gun has a cathode for emitting primary electron beams. The cathode includes a plurality of emitters for emitting primary electron beams, arranged apart from one another on a circle centered at an optical axis of a primary electro-optical system. The plurality of emitters are arranged such that when the plurality of emitters are projected onto a straight line parallel with a direction in which the primary electron beams are scanned, resulting points on the straight line are spaced at equal intervals.Type: GrantFiled: November 2, 2001Date of Patent: August 22, 2006Assignees: Ebara Corporation, Nikon CorporationInventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Nobuharu Noji, Tohru Satake, Masahiro Hatakeyama, Kenji Watanabe, Takao Kato, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Toshifumi Kimba, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima
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Patent number: 6953944Abstract: A scanning device and method includes a movable stage on which a specimen is positioned, an irradiating device for electron beam irradiation of the specimen, a detection device for generating a picture of the irradiation region by detecting a secondary beam including secondary or reflected electrons from the irradiation region, and imaging electron optical system for imaging the secondary beam on a detection surface. A secondary beam detector including a fluorescent unit arranged on the detection surface to convert the secondary beam into light, one-dimensional line sensors for forming electric charge by photoelectric conversion, an array imaging element for accumulating the electric charge in a predetermined line of the line sensors, and a two-dimensional imaging element which emits electric charge by means of photoelectric conversion. A corresponding method is also disclosed.Type: GrantFiled: November 12, 2003Date of Patent: October 11, 2005Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Yoshiaki Kohama, Akihiro Goto, Muneki Hamashima, Yukiharu Okubo
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Publication number: 20040238740Abstract: New and improved scanning device and corresponding method that include and involve a movable stage on which a specimen is positioned, irradiation means which irradiates an electron beam onto an irradiation region of the specimen, secondary beam detection means used in generating a picture of the irradiation region by detecting a secondary beam which consists of at least one of secondary electrons or reflected electrons from the irradiation region of the electron beam, an imaging electron optical system which causes imaging of the secondary beam on a detection surface of the secondary beam detection means, and which is arranged between the specimen and the secondary beam detection means.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 12, 2003Publication date: December 2, 2004Applicant: Nikon CorporationInventors: Yoshiaki Kohama, Akihiro Goto, Muneki Hamashima, Yukiharu Okubo
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Publication number: 20040183013Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for irradiating a sample with primary electron beams to detect secondary electron beams generated from a surface of the sample by the irradiation for evaluating the sample surface. In the electron beam apparatus, an electron gun has a cathode for emitting primary electron beams. The cathode includes a plurality of emitters for emitting primary electron beams, arranged apart from one another on a circle centered at an optical axis of a primary electro-optical system. The plurality of emitters are arranged such that when the plurality of emitters are projected onto a straight line parallel with a direction in which the primary electron beams are scanned, resulting points on the straight line are spaced at equal intervals.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 29, 2004Publication date: September 23, 2004Inventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Nobuharu Noji, Tohru Satake, Masahiro Hatakeyama, Kenji Watanabe, Takao Kato, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Toshifumi Kimba, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima
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Publication number: 20040135515Abstract: Provided is an electron beam apparatus which can limit the influence of aberration of a secondary optical system without the need for providing a diaphragm in the optical system, which comprises a multi-emitter type thermal cathode that reduces shot noise, and which has a multi-emitter and a Wehnelt electrode placed in parallel with each other to permit easy and accurate alignment therebetween. In one embodiment, electron beams emitted from an electron beam source are irradiated to a first aperture plate having a plurality of apertures to generate a plurality of primary electron beams which are directed onto a sample. Secondary electrons emitted from the sample are separated from a primary optical system, directed to a secondary optical system as groups of secondary electrons, and focused on a detector, so that the detector outputs detection signals of the secondary electron beams. A second aperture plate having a plurality of apertures is provided in front of the incident plane of the detector.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 31, 2003Publication date: July 15, 2004Inventors: Muneki Hamashima, Takao Kato, Mamoru Nakasuji, Nobuharu Noji, Tohru Satake
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Patent number: 6670602Abstract: New and improved scanning device and corresponding method that include and involve a movable stage on which a specimen is positioned, irradiation means which irradiates an electron beam onto an irradiation region of the specimen, secondary beam detection means used in generating a picture of the irradiation region by detecting a secondary beam which consists of at least one of secondary electrons or reflected electrons from the irradiation region of the electron beam, an imaging electron optical system which causes imaging of the secondary beam on a detection surface of the secondary beam detection means, and which is arranged between the specimen and the secondary beam detection means.Type: GrantFiled: June 3, 1999Date of Patent: December 30, 2003Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Yoshiaki Kohama, Akihiro Goto, Muneki Hamashima, Yukiharu Okubo
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Publication number: 20030207475Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for evaluating a sample surface, which has a primary electro-optical system for irradiating a sample with a primary electron beam, a detecting system, and a secondary electro-optical system for directing secondary electron beams emitted from the sample surface by the irradiation of the primary electron beam to the detecting system.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 28, 2003Publication date: November 6, 2003Applicants: EBARA CORPORATION, NIKON CORPORATIONInventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Tohru Satake, Kenji Watanabe, Takeshi Murakami, Nobuharu Noji, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Toshifumi Kimba, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima, Toru Takagi, Naoto Kihara, Hiroshi Nishimura
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Patent number: 6593152Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for evaluating a sample surface, which has a primary electro-optical system for irradiating a sample with a primary electron beam, a detecting system, and a secondary electro-optical system for directing secondary electron beams emitted from the sample surface by the irradiation of the primary electron beam to the detecting system.Type: GrantFiled: November 2, 2001Date of Patent: July 15, 2003Assignees: Ebara Corporation, Nikon CorporationInventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Tohru Satake, Kenji Watanabe, Takeshi Murakami, Nobuharu Noji, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Toshifumi Kimba, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima, Toru Takagi, Naoto Kihara, Hiroshi Nishimura
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Patent number: 6479819Abstract: This invention relates to an object observation apparatus and observation method.Type: GrantFiled: February 16, 2000Date of Patent: November 12, 2002Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Muneki Hamashima, Yoichi Watanabe, Yoshiaki Kohama
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Publication number: 20020148961Abstract: The purpose of the invention is to provide an improved electron beam apparatus with improvements in throughput, accuracy, etc. One of the characterizing features of the electron beam apparatus of the present invention is that it has a plurality of optical systems, each of which comprises a primary electron optical system for scanning and irradiating a sample with a plurality of primary electron beams; a detector device for detecting a plurality of secondary beams emitted by irradiating the sample with the primary electron beams; and a secondary electron optical system for guiding the secondary electron beams from the sample to the detector device; all configured so that the plurality of optical systems scan different regions of the sample with their primary electron beams, and detect the respective secondary electron beams emitted from each of the respective regions. This is what makes higher throughput possible.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 2, 2001Publication date: October 17, 2002Inventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Tohru Satake, Nobuharu Noji, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Toshifumi Kimba, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima, Yoshiaki Kohama, Yukiharu Okubo
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Publication number: 20020142496Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for evaluating a sample surface, which has a primary electro-optical system for irradiating a sample with a primary electron beam, a detecting system, and a secondary electro-optical system for directing secondary electron beams emitted from the sample surface by the irradiation of the primary electron beam to the detecting system.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 2, 2001Publication date: October 3, 2002Inventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Tohru Satake, Kenji Watanabe, Takeshi Murakami, Nobuharu Noji, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Toshifumi Kimba, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima, Toru Takagi, Naoto Kihara, Hiroshi Nishimura
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Publication number: 20020130262Abstract: The present invention relates to a substrate inspection apparatus for inspecting a pattern formed on a substrate by irradiating a charged particle beam onto the substrate.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 2, 2001Publication date: September 19, 2002Inventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Nobuharu Noji, Tohru Satake, Toshifumi Kimba, Masahiro Hatakeyama, Kenji Watanabe, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima
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Publication number: 20020109090Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for irradiating a sample with primary electron beams to detect secondary electron beams generated from a surface of the sample by the irradiation for evaluating the sample surface. In the electron beam apparatus, an electron gun has a cathode for emitting primary electron beams. The cathode includes a plurality of emitters for emitting primary electron beams, arranged apart from one another on a circle centered at an optical axis of a primary electro-optical system. The plurality of emitters are arranged such that when the plurality of emitters are projected onto a straight line parallel with a direction in which the primary electron beams are scanned, resulting points on the straight line are spaced at equal intervals.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 2, 2001Publication date: August 15, 2002Inventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Nobuharu Noji, Tohru Satake, Masahiro Hatakeyama, Kenji Watanabe, Takao Kato, Hirosi Sobukawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shoji Yoshikawa, Toshifumi Kimba, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima
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Patent number: 6365897Abstract: Electron beam type inspection device for generating images of specimens (e.g., silicon wafers, etc.) includes an electron gun which emits an electron beam, an electron beam optical system which causes the electron beam to form an irradiation region on a surface of a specimen, a detector which detects at least one of second order electrons and reflected electrons reflected by the irradiation region, a projection optical system projecting the second order electrons and the reflected electrons onto a detection surface within the detector. The second order electrons and the reflected electrons correspond to an observation region within the irradiation region. The inspection device also includes a magnification controller which controls the size of the observation region and the magnification of the projection optical system, and an irradiation controller which controls the current density of the irradiation region based on the size of the observation region.Type: GrantFiled: December 18, 1998Date of Patent: April 2, 2002Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Muneki Hamashima, Akihiro Goto, Hiroshi Nishimura
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Publication number: 20020033449Abstract: An inspection apparatus and a semiconductor device manufacturing method using the same. The inspection apparatus is used for defect inspection, line width measurement, surface potential measurement or the like of a sample such as a wafer. In the inspection apparatus, a plurality of charged particles is delivered from a primary optical system to the sample, and secondary charged particles emitted from the sample are separated from the primary optical system and introduced through a secondary optical system to a detector. Irradiation of the charged particles is conducted while moving the sample. Irradiation spots of the charged particles are arranged by N rows along a moving direction of the sample and by M columns along a direction perpendicular thereto. Every row of the irradiation spots of the charged particles is shifted successively by a predetermined amount in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the sample.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 27, 2001Publication date: March 21, 2002Inventors: Mamoru Nakasuji, Nobuharu Noji, Tohru Satake, Toshifumi Kimba, Hirosi Sobukawa, Shoji Yoshikawa, Tsutomu Karimata, Shin Oowada, Mutsumi Saito, Muneki Hamashima, Toru Takagi
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Patent number: 6184526Abstract: This invention concerns an apparatus and a method for observing and inspecting a predetermined area in a surface of a sample by use of an electron beam. The apparatus according to this invention comprises an MCP for multiplying a secondary beam emerging from the surface of the sample. The apparatus and method employ a CCD TDI array in order to increase the lifetime of the MCP, and special scan control is carried out in the observation and inspection operation. In addition, the apparatus according to this invention has various structures for enabling correction for positional deviation of the sample and high-speed processing.Type: GrantFiled: July 28, 1999Date of Patent: February 6, 2001Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Yoshiaki Kohama, Muneki Hamashima, Shigeru Takemoto
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Patent number: 6011262Abstract: The present invention discloses an object observing apparatus comprising a stage for mounting a sample to be observed; a primary optical system, having an electron gun, for emitting a primary irradiation beam to the stage; and a secondary optical system, having an inlet facing the stage, for receiving an electron generated when the sample is irradiated with the primary irradiation beam and forming an image thereof; wherein the secondary optical system comprises an imaging optical system for forming an image of the electron incident thereon, and a field aperture having a plurality of optical patterns and being adapted to selectively attach and detach each optical pattern at a predetermined position or an aperture stop having at least one aperture size and being selectively attachable and detachable.Type: GrantFiled: March 25, 1998Date of Patent: January 4, 2000Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Muneki Hamashima, Hidekazu Takekoshi
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Patent number: 5479537Abstract: In an image processing method of effecting the pattern matching of an input image and a pre-memorized reference image, the reference image is pre-memorized in memory means and the input image is input to input means. The reference image and the input image obtained from the memory means and the input means, respectively, have the same differential filters applied thereto by differentiation means, whereby a differential reference image and a differential input image are obtained. The differential reference image and the differential input image are input to differential correlation value calculation means or inner product sum calculation means, whereby the cross-correlation value or the inner product sum of these is calculated, and the local maximum value of the cross-correlation value or the inner product sum is found by image recognizing means to thereby find the relative positional relation between the reference image and the input image.Type: GrantFiled: May 8, 1992Date of Patent: December 26, 1995Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Muneki Hamashima, Shinichi Okita
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Patent number: 5373567Abstract: In the pattern matching method, when a reference pattern is extracted from the reference picture, check search is carried out repeatedly a plural number of times while conducting picture compressions on the reference picture with the compression start position being changed to obtain correlation values between the reference picture and the reference pattern. Based on the correlation values obtained by the check search, the number of times of search to be done actually and the picture compression ratio for the actual search are determined.Type: GrantFiled: January 8, 1993Date of Patent: December 13, 1994Assignee: Nikon CorporationInventors: Kozo Takahashi, Toshiaki Kitamura, Muneki Hamashima
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Patent number: 4769551Abstract: Pattern detection and measurement comprises: first irradiation means for irradiating a workpiece with a first energy beam; detection means for receiving a second energy beam emitted from a portion of the workpiece irradiated by the first energy beam, thereby detecting a pattern in the irradiated portion; second irradiation means for irradiating the workpiece with a third energy beam; discrimination means for receiving a fourth energy beam emitted from a portion of the workpiece irradiated by the third energy beam, thereby discriminating whether the portion irradiated by the third energy beam is sensitive to the first energy beam; and control means for controlling, in response to the output of the discrimination means, the first energy beam in irradiating the sensitive portion, thereby preventing the damage of the sensitive portion by the first energy beam.Type: GrantFiled: June 25, 1987Date of Patent: September 6, 1988Assignee: Nippon Kogaku K.K.Inventors: Muneki Hamashima, Kinya Kato, Tatsumi Ishizeki, Kou Sekiba, Hiroaki Iseya