Patents by Inventor Noritsugu Takahashi

Noritsugu Takahashi 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).

  • Publication number: 20150076362
    Abstract: In order to provide a charged particle beam apparatus enabling reduction of deflecting coma aberration in cases such as where wide field-of-view scanning is carried out, a charged particle beam apparatus is provided with an electromagnetic objective lens and a stage on which a sample is placed, wherein the electromagnetic objective lens is provided with the following: a plurality of magnetic paths; an objective lens coil; an opening disposed so as to face the sample; an inner lens deflector disposed more on the objective lens coil side than the end of the opening.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 18, 2013
    Publication date: March 19, 2015
    Inventors: Yasunari Sohda, Tasuku Yano, Muneyuki Fukuda, Noritsugu Takahashi, Hajime Kawano, Hiroyuki Ito
  • Publication number: 20140326879
    Abstract: A lower pole piece of an electromagnetic superposition type objective lens is divided into an upper magnetic path and a lower magnetic path. A voltage nearly equal to a retarding voltage is applied to the lower magnetic path. An objective lens capable of acquiring an image with a higher resolution and a higher contrast than a conventional image is provided. An electromagnetic superposition type objective lens includes a magnetic path that encloses a coil, a cylindrical or conical booster magnetic path that surrounds an electron beam, a control magnetic path that is interposed between the coil and sample, an accelerating electric field control unit that accelerates the electron beam using a booster power supply, a decelerating electric field control unit that decelerates the electron beam using a stage power supply, and a suppression unit that suppresses electric discharge of the sample using a control magnetic path power supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2014
    Publication date: November 6, 2014
    Inventors: Muneyuki FUKUDA, Naomasa SUZUKI, Tomoyasu SHOJO, Noritsugu TAKAHASHI
  • Patent number: 8859962
    Abstract: A charged-particle-beam device is characterized in having a control value for an aligner coil (29) being determined by: a coil current and an electrode applied-voltage at a control value for objectives (30, 31), which is an electromagnetic-field superposition lens; a control value for image-shift coils (27, 28); and the acceleration voltage of the charged-particle-beam. By doing this, it has become possible to avoid image disturbances that occur on images to be displayed at boundaries between charged areas and non-charged areas, and provide a charged-particle-beam device that obtains clear images without any unevenness in brightness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Noritsugu Takahashi, Muneyuki Fukuda, Manabu Yano, Hirohiko Kitsuki, Kazunari Asao, Tomoyasu Shojo
  • Patent number: 8841612
    Abstract: This charged particle beam microscope is characterized by being provided with selection means (153, 155) for a measurement processing method for detected particles (118) and by this means selecting a different measurement processing method for a scanning region with a large number of secondary electrons (115) emitted from a sample (114) and for a region with a small number of secondary electrons. Thus, in sample scanning using a charged particle beam microscope, an image in which the contrast of bottom holes and channel bottoms with few emitted secondary electrons is emphasized and images that emphasize shadow contrast can be acquired in a short period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Muneyuki Fukuda, Naomasa Suzuki, Tomoyasu Shojo, Noritsugu Takahashi, Hiroshi Suzuki, Hiroshi Makino
  • Patent number: 8785890
    Abstract: A lower pole piece of an electromagnetic superposition type objective lens is divided into an upper magnetic path and a lower magnetic path. A voltage nearly equal to a retarding voltage is applied to the lower magnetic path. An objective lens capable of acquiring an image with a higher resolution and a higher contrast than a conventional image is provided. An electromagnetic superposition type objective lens includes a magnetic path that encloses a coil, a cylindrical or conical booster magnetic path that surrounds an electron beam, a control magnetic path that is interposed between the coil and sample, an accelerating electric field control unit that accelerates the electron beam using a booster power supply, a decelerating electric field control unit that decelerates the electron beam using a stage power supply, and a suppression unit that suppresses electric discharge of the sample using a control magnetic path power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Muneyuki Fukuda, Naomasa Suzuki, Tomoyasu Shojo, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20140197313
    Abstract: A charged-particle-beam device is characterized in having a control value for an aligner coil (29) being determined by: a coil current and an electrode applied-voltage at a control value for objectives (30, 31), which is an electromagnetic-field superposition lens; a control value for image-shift coils (27, 28); and the acceleration voltage of the charged-particle-beam. By doing this, it has become possible to avoid image disturbances that occur on images to be displayed at boundaries between charged areas and non-charged areas, and provide a charged-particle-beam device that obtains clear images without any unevenness in brightness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2014
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Noritsugu TAKAHASHI, Muneyuki FUKUDA, Manabu YANO, Hirohiko KITSUKI, Kazunari ASAO, Tomoyasu SHOJO
  • Patent number: 8735814
    Abstract: The electron beam device includes a source of electrons and an objective deflector. The electron beam device obtains an image on the basis of signals of secondary electrons, etc. which are emitted from a material by an electron beam being projected. The electron beam device further includes a bias chromatic aberration correction element, further including an electromagnetic deflector which is positioned closer to the source of the electrons than the objective deflector, and an electrostatic deflector which has a narrower interior diameter than the electromagnetic deflector, is positioned within the electromagnetic deflector such that the height-wise position from the material overlaps with the electromagnetic deflector, and is capable of applying an offset voltage. It is thus possible to provide an electron beam device with which it is possible to alleviate geometric aberration (parasitic aberration) caused by deflection and implement deflection over a wide field of view with high resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Yasunari Sohda, Takeyoshi Ohashi, Tasuku Yano, Muneyuki Fukuda, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20130270435
    Abstract: The electron beam device includes a source of electrons and an objective deflector. The electron beam device obtains an image on the basis of signals of secondary electrons, etc. which are emitted from a material by an electron beam being projected. The electron beam device further includes a bias chromatic aberration correction element, further including an electromagnetic deflector which is positioned closer to the source of the electrons than the objective deflector, and an electrostatic deflector which has a narrower interior diameter than the electromagnetic deflector, is positioned within the electromagnetic deflector such that the height-wise position from the material overlaps with the electromagnetic deflector, and is capable of applying an offset voltage. It is thus possible to provide an electron beam device with which it is possible to alleviate geometric aberration (parasitic aberration) caused by deflection and implement deflection over a wide field of view with high resolution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2011
    Publication date: October 17, 2013
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasunari Sohda, Takeyoshi Ohashi, Tasuku Yano, Muneyuki Fukuda, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20130228701
    Abstract: A lower pole piece of an electromagnetic superposition type objective lens is divided into an upper magnetic path and a lower magnetic path. A voltage nearly equal to a retarding voltage is applied to the lower magnetic path. An objective lens capable of acquiring an image with a higher resolution and a higher contrast than a conventional image is provided. An electromagnetic superposition type objective lens includes a magnetic path that encloses a coil, a cylindrical or conical booster magnetic path that surrounds an electron beam, a control magnetic path that is interposed between the coil and sample, an accelerating electric field control unit that accelerates the electron beam using a booster power supply, a decelerating electric field control unit that decelerates the electron beam using a stage power supply, and a suppression unit that suppresses electric discharge of the sample using a control magnetic path power supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Publication date: September 5, 2013
    Applicant: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Muneyuki Fukuda, Naomasa Suzuki, Tomoyasu Shojo, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8467595
    Abstract: A system is provided that realizes both reduction in coordinate error and improvement in throughput and allows observation of a micro-defect. The system includes: a function of measuring an amount of displacement between preliminarily calculated coordinates and an actual specimen position; a function of optimizing a coordinate correction formula so as to minimize the amount of displacement from the measured amount of displacement; and a function of calculating variation of displacement between the preliminarily calculated coordinates and the actual specimen position by statistical processing. When a value of coordinate variation is sufficiently small with respect to the field of view of an image for observation, which is to be a defect observation image, the system acquires only the image for observation without performing acquisition of an image for search, which is to be a defect search image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Noritsugu Takahashi, Muneyuki Fukuda, Tomoyasu Shojo, Naomasa Suzuki, Kenji Obara
  • Publication number: 20130126733
    Abstract: This charged particle beam microscope is characterized by being provided with selection means (153, 155) for a measurement processing method for detected particles (118) and by this means selecting a different measurement processing method for a scanning region with a large number of secondary electrons (115) emitted from a sample (114) and for a region with a small number of secondary electrons. Thus, in sample scanning using a charged particle beam microscope, an image in which the contrast of bottom holes and channel bottoms with few emitted secondary electrons is emphasized and images that emphasize shadow contrast can be acquired in a short period of time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2011
    Publication date: May 23, 2013
    Applicant: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Muneyuki Fukuda, Naomasa Suzuki, Tomoyasu Shojo, Noritsugu Takahashi, Hiroshi Suzuki, Hiroshi Makino
  • Patent number: 8431915
    Abstract: A lower pole piece of an electromagnetic superposition type objective lens is divided into an upper magnetic path and a lower magnetic path. A voltage nearly equal to a retarding voltage is applied to the lower magnetic path. An objective lens capable of acquiring an image with a higher resolution and a higher contrast than a conventional image is provided. An electromagnetic superposition type objective lens includes a magnetic path that encloses a coil, a cylindrical or conical booster magnetic path that surrounds an electron beam, a control magnetic path that is interposed between the coil and sample, an accelerating electric field control unit that accelerates the electron beam using a booster power supply, a decelerating electric field control unit that decelerates the electron beam using a stage power supply, and a suppression unit that suppresses electric discharge of the sample using a control magnetic path power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Muneyuki Fukuda, Naomasa Suzuki, Tomoyasu Shojo, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8405026
    Abstract: Disclosed herewith is a charged particle beam apparatus capable of controlling each of the probe current and the objective divergence angle to obtain a desired probe current and a desired objective divergence angle in accordance with the diameter of the subject objective aperture. The apparatus is configured to include an objective aperture between first and second condenser lenses to calculate and set a control value of a first condenser lens in accordance with the diameter of the hole of the objective aperture so as to obtain a desired probe current and calculate a control value of a second condenser lens setting device in accordance with the diameter of the hole of the objective divergence angle and the control value of the second condenser lens setting device, thereby setting the calculated control value for the second condenser lens setting device to control the objective divergence angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoyasu Shojo, Muneyuki Fukuda, Naomasa Suzuki, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8389935
    Abstract: A lower pole piece of an electromagnetic superposition type objective lens is divided into an upper magnetic path and a lower magnetic path. A voltage nearly equal to a retarding voltage is applied to the lower magnetic path. An objective lens capable of acquiring an image with a higher resolution and a higher contrast than a conventional image is provided. An electromagnetic superposition type objective lens includes a magnetic path that encloses a coil, a cylindrical or conical booster magnetic path that surrounds an electron beam, a control magnetic path that is interposed between the coil and sample, an accelerating electric field control unit that accelerates the electron beam using a booster power supply, a decelerating electric field control unit that decelerates the electron beam using a stage power supply, and a suppression unit that suppresses electric discharge of the sample using a control magnetic path power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Muneyuki Fukuda, Naomasa Suzuki, Tomoyasu Shojo, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20120286160
    Abstract: A charged particle instrument including a controlling and operating unit for controlling a charged particle source, deflecting means, and focus changing means and making a data for an image by an electric signal detected by a detector, and a recording unit for preserving a correction coefficient registered at each image-acquisition, in which the controlling and operating unit acquires plural images while changing a focus, and controls an optical condition such that a landing angle of a charged particle beam becomes perpendicular when an image for measurement is acquired on the basis of a position shift amount of a mark in the image and a correction coefficient registered to the recording unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2012
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Inventors: Takeyoshi OHASHI, Yasunari Sohda, Makoto Ezumi, Muneyuki Fukuda, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20120280126
    Abstract: A lower pole piece of an electromagnetic superposition type objective lens is divided into an upper magnetic path and a lower magnetic path. A voltage nearly equal to a retarding voltage is applied to the lower magnetic path. An objective lens capable of acquiring an image with a higher resolution and a higher contrast than a conventional image is provided. An electromagnetic superposition type objective lens includes a magnetic path that encloses a coil, a cylindrical or conical booster magnetic path that surrounds an electron beam, a control magnetic path that is interposed between the coil and sample, an accelerating electric field control unit that accelerates the electron beam using a booster power supply, a decelerating electric field control unit that decelerates the electron beam using a stage power supply, and a suppression unit that suppresses electric discharge of the sample using a control magnetic path power supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 17, 2012
    Publication date: November 8, 2012
    Applicant: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Muneyuki FUKUDA, Naomasa SUZUKI, Tomoyasu SHOJO, Noritsugu TAKAHASHI
  • Patent number: 8209135
    Abstract: A defect detected by a wafer inspection tool is reliably captured by a defect review tool. A defect review condition in the defect review tool is varied depending on defect attributes provided by the wafer inspection tool so as to optimize the review process. For example, review magnification is varied depending on the size of the defect, or the frame addition number is varied depending on the maximum gray level difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Tomohiro Funakoshi, Junko Konishi, Yuko Kariya, Noritsugu Takahashi, Fumiaki Endo
  • Publication number: 20120119087
    Abstract: A charged-particle-beam device is characterized in having a control value for an aligner coil (29) being determined by: a coil current and an electrode applied-voltage at a control value for objectives (30, 31), which is an electromagnetic-field superposition lens; a control value for image-shift coils (27, 28); and the acceleration voltage of the charged-particle-beam. By doing this, it has become possible to avoid image disturbances that occur on images to be displayed at boundaries between charged areas and non-charged areas, and provide a charged-particle-beam device that obtains clear images without any unevenness in brightness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2010
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Noritsugu Takahashi, Muneyuki Fukuda, Manabu Yano, Hirohiko Kitsuki, Kazunari Asao, Tomoyasu Shojo
  • Patent number: 8153969
    Abstract: In an electric immersion lens having high resolution capability, secondary electrons generated from a specimen are accelerated to suppress the dependency of rotational action of the secondary electrons applied thereto by an objective lens upon energy levels of the secondary electrons and when selectively detecting low and high angle components of elevation and azimuth as viewed from a secondary electron generation site by means of an annular detector interposed between an electron source and the objective lens, the secondary electrons are adjusted and deflected by means of an E×B deflector such that the center axis of secondary electrons converged finely under acceleration is made to be coincident with the center axis of a low elevation signal detection system and the secondary electrons are deviated from an aperture of a high elevation signal detection system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Atsuko Fukada, Mitsugu Sato, Naomasa Suzuki, Hidetoshi Nishiyama, Muneyuki Fukuda, Noritsugu Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20120004879
    Abstract: An object of the invention is to be able to select easily and quickly inspection recipes which are appropriate to samples from any number of inspection recipes. A calculating device displays a plurality of inspection recipes on the GUI. An inspection recipe includes settings for controlling charged particle columns which irradiate charged particles on samples with a plurality of characteristics. Plural inspection recipes are arranged and displayed on a coordinate system which is specified by a plurality of axes having characteristic values (robustness variable of charge up, throughput of defect inspection, and accuracy of defect inspection) which have mutually trade-off relationships.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2011
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Muneyuki FUKUDA, Tomoyasu SHOJO, Atsuko FUKADA, Noritsugu TAKAHASHI