Abstract: A microscopic projection or a characteristic pattern are formed in the vicinity of a region to be processed before processing using electron beam CVD, during processing an image of a region containing the projection or pattern formed by electron beam CVD is captured to obtain a current position of the projection or pattern, a difference between the position before staring and the current position is treated as a drift amount and processing is restarted at a region that has been subjected to microscopic adjustment of the electron irradiation region.

Abstract: An indentation is formed by thrusting a probe of a scanning probe microscope for processing, which has a vertical surface or a vertical ridge and is harder than sample material, into sample for measuring the indentation. A high-fidelity AFM observation is performed on the shape of the formed indentation with a thin probe with high aspect ratio, the direction of the vertical surface or the vertical ridge is inspected, and the angle error ? is stored. By rotating a sample stage by an angle corresponding to the measured mounting angle error ? of the probe, the mounting angle error of the probe is corrected in advance.

Abstract: Fine markers are formed by thrusting a probe, which is harder than material to be processed, the formed fine markers are observed in the course of processing, the drift amount is obtained from the change of the position of the center of gravity of the hole, and the processing is restarted in the processing area corrected by the obtained drift amount.

Abstract: There is provided a device in which a probe can be used for both of observation and correction, and which can, even if a next generation photomask of ultra minute structure is made an object, perform a desired processing without injuring a normal portion in a process of obtaining information of a position and a shape of a defect part, and without impairing the probe also at a processing time. It has been adapted such that, at an observation time, a contact pressure between a probe and a mask is reduced to 0.1 nN by applying a vibration of 1 kHz to 1 MHz to the probe. It has been adapted such that a cantilever used in the present invention is formed by a silicon material of 100-600 ?m in length and 5-50 ?m in thickness and, at the observation time, the probe contacts with the mask at the contact pressure of 0.1 nN and, at the processing time, a defect correction can be performed by causing the probe to contact with the mask at the contact pressure of 10 nN to 1 mN.

Abstract: To provide a technique in which chips generated by a defect portion scraping processing using a scanning probe microscope can be removed completely without being collected at the surface of a sample despite of the surface tension of adsorbed water existing on the sample surface and/or electrostatic charges caused by friction. A subject to be processed is disposed within a cell in which liquid is reserved. The scratch processing using a canning probe microscope is performed within the liquid so that chips or shavings scatter within the liquid, not remaining on the surface of the sample. Further, the processing cell is provided with a supply port and an discharge port for the liquid so that new liquid is supplied within the cell through the supply port after the termination of the scratch processing to clean within the cell.

Abstract: A processing probe capable of repairing a mask-pattern without any damage by preventing electric discharge between the mask patterns, which is caused by electrostatic electrification due to friction between a probe and a mask glass substrate, in repairing a black defect (a convex defect) of a photo-mask with the probe microscope technique is provided. A probe used for mechanically scratching a defective portion is arranged to have conductively. This allows static electricity due to friction in processing to be released from the probe, a cantilever and a cantilever holding member to a square body of an apparatus to prevent electrostatic electrification of a mask glass substrate, and thereby, to prevent electric discharge between mask patterns, so that the mask pattern can be repaired without any damage.

Abstract: In order to enable the correction of clear defects, opaque defects, and Levenson mask glass projection defects using one species of gas, by changing gas pressure and probe current and scanning conditions of the ion beam 2, the diacetone acrylamide is capable of forming a light-blocking film 17 correcting clear defects on a glass substrate 16 and a chrome pattern 15, is capable of removing chrome and glass at a high etching rate, and is capable of eliminating opaque defect regions 18 and eliminating glass projection defect regions 19. It is therefore possible to carry out correction by changing gas supplying conditions and ion beam irradiation conditions according to whether the correction is clear defect correction, opaque defect correction, or Levenson mask glass projection defect correction.

Abstract: A system for surface or cross-sectional processing and observation and a method of surface or cross-sectional processing and observation using the system. The system has a unit for processing a sample surface to expose a target surface or cross section and a scanning probe microscope unit for observing the exposed surface or cross section. According to the system and method, a scanning probe microscope capable of providing different kinds of information is used to form at least one target surface or cross section in a sample surface and to observe the target surface or cross section. This offers the following advantages: a spatial resolution comparable to that of a transmission electron microscope can be achieved; and electric, magnetic, and mechanical information for a target sample plane, which couldn't be obtained by the known method, can be monitored in a shorter operating time.

Abstract: First, a region including the defect is observed with the atomic force microscope (AFM) and a pattern putting together the shape and position of the defect is extracted from and AFM image. The extracted pattern is then converted to a shape format for a for an ion beam defect repairing apparatus and transferred. At this time, a pattern that is observable with the ion beam defect repairing apparatus is selected as a position alignment pattern. The extracted/converted position alignment pattern is combined with a pattern corresponding to a secondary electron image or a secondary ion image. Repairing of the irradiation region and similar repairing is then performed with respect to matching processing for a pattern for a normal secondary ion image or secondary electron image for the ion beam defect repairing apparatus and extraction is performed by the AFM. A defect region finely adjusted using alignment of the position alignment pattern is then corrected using an ion beam.

Abstract: In the present invention, a dot matrix taking a spot of an ion beam at a processing surface as one dot is set at the processing surface, the presence or absence of secondary charged particles, indicating the presence of a black defect, discharged from a plurality of dots including a noted dot and associated peripheral dots is detected while eliminating black defects by irradiating each dot of a processing region with an ion beam for a fixed time, calculating a physical quantity corresponding to this presence based on this detection information, and determining completion of processing of this noted dot when this value is less than or equal to a reference value.

Abstract: A secondary ion detector 130 senses defects on a photomask and outputs image information. The CPU 140 then displays this image information at a monitor 150. An operator then selects a pattern corresponding to a displayed defect from defect patterns recorded in a memory 120 using an input unit 160, designates a correction region, and designates coordinates for deciding a boundary line for a normal region and a defect. The CPU 140 then automatically determines the defect region using this inputted information and sends the determination results to the focussed ion beam apparatus 110. The focussed ion beam apparatus 110 then corrects the photomask by performing etching or deposition processing on the region indicated by the determination results.

Abstract: First, a region including the defect is observed with the atomic force microscope (AFM) and a pattern putting together the shape and position of the defect is extracted from and AFM image. The extracted pattern is then converted to a shape format for a for an ion beam defect repairing apparatus and transferred. At this time, a pattern that is observable with the ion beam defect repairing apparatus is selected as a position alignment pattern. The extracted/converted position alignment pattern is combined with a pattern corresponding to a secondary electron image or a secondary ion image. Repairing of the irradiation region and similar repairing is then performed with respect to matching processing for a pattern for a normal secondary ion image or secondary electron image for the ion beam defect repairing apparatus and extraction is performed by the AFM. A defect region finely adjusted using alignment of the position alignment pattern is then corrected using an ion beam.

Abstract: In an object lens of a type of generating a magnetic field of the side of a specimen and maing a principal plan of the lens close to the specimen for reducing aberration coefficients, an inner magnetic pole is formed in a shape of a cone having an angle of 30° of less to an optical axis and an outer magnetic pole is also provided inside the cone by which even the large-size specimen can be inclined up to about 60° and the large-size specimen can be observed with high resolution even when the specimen is inclined at a high angle.

Abstract: An high resolution electron beam observation instrument has an electron beam source, an electron beam optical system for converging the electron beam and scanning the electron beam across the surface of a sample, and a compound magnetic and electrostatic objective lens comprising a single pole magnetic lens having a single magnetic pole portion disposed between the electron beam source and the sample and an electrostatic immersion lens, the electrostatic immersion lens comprising an upper electrode and a lower electrode, one end of the upper electrode extending between the single magnetic pole portion and the sample, and the lower electrode being disposed between the upper electrode and the sample; wherein a deceleration electric field is generated between the upper electrode and the lower electrode to allow high resolution observation of the sample. The upper electrode may comprise the single magnetic pole portion of the single pole magnetic lens, or one or more seperate electrodes.