Patents by Inventor Yasunari Sohda

Yasunari Sohda 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: 11435178
    Abstract: To implement a calibration sample by which an incident angle can be measured with high accuracy, an electron beam adjustment method, and an electron beam apparatus using the calibration sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasunari Sohda, Yoshinori Nakayama, Kaori Bizen, Hiroya Ohta, Yusuke Abe
  • Patent number: 11276551
    Abstract: An inspection device includes a charged particle optical system that includes a charged particle beam source emitting a charged particle beam and plural lenses focusing the charged particle beam on a sample, a detector that detects secondary charged particles emitted by an interaction of the charged particle beam and the sample, and a calculation unit that executes auto-focusing at a time a field of view of the charged particle optical system moves over plural inspection spots, the calculation unit irradiates the charged particle beam to the sample under an optical condition that is obtained by introducing astigmatism of a predetermined specification to an optical condition that is for observing a pattern by the charged particle optical system, and executes the auto-focusing using an image formed from a signal outputted by the detector in detecting the secondary charged particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Atsuko Shintani, Yasunari Sohda, Noritsugu Takahashi, Hikaru Koyama
  • Patent number: 11251018
    Abstract: Provided is a scanning electron microscope which can perform high-speed focus correction even when an electron beam having high energy is used. The scanning electron microscope includes an electron optical system including an electron source 100 that emits an electron beam and an objective lens 113, a sample stage 1025 which is disposed on a stage 115 and on which a sample 114 is placed, a backscattered electron detector 1023 which is disposed between the objective lens and the sample stage and is configured to detect backscattered electrons 1017 emitted due to interaction between the electron beam and the sample, a backscattered electron detection system control unit 138 which is provided corresponding to the backscattered electron detector and is configured to apply a voltage to the backscattered electron detector, and a device control calculation device 146.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation
    Inventors: Yasunari Sohda, Kaori Bizen, Yusuke Abe, Kenji Tanimoto
  • Patent number: 11227740
    Abstract: In order to provide an electron gun capable of maintaining a small spot diameter of a beam converged on a sample even when a probe current applied to the sample is increased, a magnetic field generation source 301 is provided with respect to an electron gun including: an electron source 101; an extraction electrode 102 configured to extract electrons from the electron source 101; an acceleration electrode 103 configured to accelerate the electrons extracted from the electron source 101; and a first coil 104 and a first magnetic path 201 having an opening on an electron source side, the first coil 104 and the first magnetic path 201 forming a control lens configured to converge an electron beam emitted from the acceleration electrode 103. The magnetic field generation source is provided for canceling a magnetic field, at an installation position of the electron source 101, generated by the first coil 104 and the first magnetic path 201.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
    Inventors: Soichiro Matsunaga, Yasunari Sohda, Souichi Katagiri, Makoto Sakakibara, Hajime Kawano, Takashi Doi
  • Publication number: 20210272770
    Abstract: Provided is a scanning electron microscope which can perform high-speed focus correction even when an electron beam having high energy is used. The scanning electron microscope includes an electron optical system including an electron source 100 that emits an electron beam and an objective lens 113, a sample stage 1025 which is disposed on a stage 115 and on which a sample 114 is placed, a backscattered electron detector 1023 which is disposed between the objective lens and the sample stage and is configured to detect backscattered electrons 1017 emitted due to interaction between the electron beam and the sample, a backscattered electron detection system control unit 138 which is provided corresponding to the backscattered electron detector and is configured to apply a voltage to the backscattered electron detector, and a device control calculation device 146.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2018
    Publication date: September 2, 2021
    Inventors: Yasunari SOHDA, Kaori BIZEN, Yusuke ABE, Kenji TANIMOTO
  • Publication number: 20210131801
    Abstract: To implement a calibration sample by which an incident angle can be measured with high accuracy, an electron beam adjustment method, and an electron beam apparatus using the calibration sample.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Publication date: May 6, 2021
    Inventors: Yasunari SOHDA, Yoshinori NAKAYAMA, Kaori BIZEN, Hiroya OHTA, Yusuke ABE
  • Publication number: 20200365364
    Abstract: An inspection device includes a charged particle optical system that includes a charged particle beam source emitting a charged particle beam and plural lenses focusing the charged particle beam on a sample, a detector that detects secondary charged particles emitted by an interaction of the charged particle beam and the sample, and a calculation unit that executes auto-focusing at a time a field of view of the charged particle optical system moves over plural inspection spots, the calculation unit irradiates the charged particle beam to the sample under an optical condition that is obtained by introducing astigmatism of a predetermined specification to an optical condition that is for observing a pattern by the charged particle optical system, and executes the auto-focusing using an image formed from a signal outputted by the detector in detecting the secondary charged particles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2020
    Publication date: November 19, 2020
    Inventors: Atsuko SHINTANI, Yasunari SOHDA, Noritsugu TAKAHASHI, Hikaru KOYAMA
  • Patent number: 10825649
    Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam device suitable for observing the bottom of a deep groove or a deep hole with a high degree of accuracy under a large current condition. The electron beam device has: an electron optical system having an irradiation optical system to irradiate an aperture 153 with an electron beam 116 emitted from an electron source 100 and a reduction projection optical system to project and form an aperture image of the aperture on a sample 114; and a control unit 146 to control a projection magnification of the aperture image of the aperture projected and formed on the sample and an aperture angle 402 of the electron beam emitted to the sample by the electron optical system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Yasunari Sohda, Daisuke Bizen, Makoto Sakakibara
  • Publication number: 20200266020
    Abstract: In order to provide an electron gun capable of maintaining a small spot diameter of a beam converged on a sample even when a probe current applied to the sample is increased, a magnetic field generation source 301 is provided with respect to an electron gun including: an electron source 101; an extraction electrode 102 configured to extract electrons from the electron source 101; an acceleration electrode 103 configured to accelerate the electrons extracted from the electron source 101; and a first coil 104 and a first magnetic path 201 having an opening on an electron source side, the first coil 104 and the first magnetic path 201 forming a control lens configured to converge an electron beam emitted from the acceleration electrode 103. The magnetic field generation source is provided for canceling a magnetic field, at an installation position of the electron source 101, generated by the first coil 104 and the first magnetic path 201.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Publication date: August 20, 2020
    Inventors: Soichiro MATSUNAGA, Yasunari SOHDA, Souichi KATAGIRI, Makoto SAKAKIBARA, Hajime KAWANO, Takashi DOI
  • Patent number: 10692693
    Abstract: A pattern measuring device ensures highly accurately measuring a depth and a three-dimensional shape irrespective of a formation accuracy of a deep trench and/or a deep hole. Therefore, in the present invention, the measuring system detects backscattered electrons from a pattern caused by an irradiation, compares backscattered electron signal intensities from a top surface, a bottom surface, and a sidewall of the pattern, and calculates a three-dimensional shape (or height information) of the sidewall based on a difference in heights of the top surface and the lower surface. The measuring system compares the calculated three-dimensional shape of the sidewall with a three-dimensional shape of the sidewall estimated based on an intensity distribution (open angle) of a primary electron beam, corrects the estimated three-dimensional shape of the sidewall based on a difference in the comparison, and corrects until the difference in the comparison becomes an acceptable value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
    Inventors: Wei Sun, Yasunari Sohda, Taku Ninomiya, Yasunori Goto
  • Patent number: 10636618
    Abstract: There is provided a charged particle beam apparatus including: a charged particle source; a condenser lens and an object lens for converging a charged particle beam from the charged particle source and irradiating the converged charged particle beam to a specimen; and plural image shift deflectors for deflecting the charged particle beam. In the charged particle beam apparatus, the deflection of the charged particle beam is controlled using first control parameters that set the optical axis of a charged particle beam to a first optical axis that passes through the center of the object lens and enters a predefined position of the specimen, and second control parameters that transform the first control parameters so that the first control parameters set the optical axis of the charged particle beam to a second optical axis having a predefined incident angle different from the incident angle of the first optical axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kaori Bizen, Yasunari Sohda, Makoto Sakakibara, Hiroya Ohta, Kenji Tanimoto, Yusuke Abe
  • Patent number: 10629405
    Abstract: An electron beam device suitable for observing the bottom of a deep groove or hole with a high degree of accuracy under a large current condition includes: an electron optical system having an irradiation optical system to irradiate a first aperture with an electron beam emitted from an electron source and a reduction projection optical system to project and form an aperture image of the first aperture on a sample, detectors to detect secondary electrons emitted by irradiating the sample with the electron beam through the electron optical system. An image processing unit generates a two-dimensional image from detection signals obtained by irradiating the sample while the electron beam scans the sample two-dimensionally by scanning deflectors of the electron optical system. Further, generates a reconstructed image by deconvoluting electron beam intensity distribution information of an ideal aperture image of the first aperture from the generated two-dimensional image information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Yasunari Sohda, Momoyo Enyama, Megumi Kimura, Koichi Hamada
  • Patent number: 10559450
    Abstract: The present invention enlarges a range of movement of field of view by beam deflection with a simple deflector configuration and suppresses deterioration of a signal electron detection rate caused by the beam deflection. A scanning electron microscope according to the present invention is provided with a first deflection field setting module that sets plural deflectors to move a scanning area on a specimen by a primary electron beam to a position deviated from an axis extended from an electron source toward the center of an objective lens and a second deflection field setting module that sets the plural deflectors so that trajectories of signal electrons are corrected without changing the scanning area set by the first deflection field setting module. The control unit controls the plural deflectors by adding a setting value set by the second deflection field setting module to a setting value set by the first deflection field setting module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Noritsugu Takahashi, Yasunari Sohda, Akira Ikegami, Yuta Kawamoto
  • Patent number: 10446361
    Abstract: In order to provide an aberration correction system that realizes a charged particle beam of which the anisotropy is reduced or eliminated on a sample surface even in the case where there is magnetic interference between pole stages of an aberration corrector, an correction system includes a line cross position control device (209) which controls a line cross position in the aberration corrector of the charged particle beam so that a designed value and an actually measured value of the line cross position are equal to each other, an image shift amount extraction device (210), and a feedback determination device (211) which determines whether or not changing an excitation amount of the aberration corrector is necessary whether or not changing an excitation amount is necessary from an extracted image shift amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Zhaohui Cheng, Tomonori Nakano, Kotoko Urano, Takeyoshi Ohashi, Yasunari Sohda, Hideyuki Kazumi
  • Publication number: 20190295805
    Abstract: The present invention provides an electron beam device suitable for observing the bottom of a deep groove or a deep hole with a high degree of accuracy under a large current condition. The electron beam device has: an electron optical system having an irradiation optical system to irradiate an aperture 153 with an electron beam 116 emitted from an electron source 100 and a reduction projection optical system to project and form an aperture image of the aperture on a sample 114; and a control unit 146 to control a projection magnification of the aperture image of the aperture projected and formed on the sample and an aperture angle 402 of the electron beam emitted to the sample by the electron optical system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2019
    Publication date: September 26, 2019
    Inventors: Yasunari SOHDA, Daisuke BIZEN, Makoto SAKAKIBARA
  • Publication number: 20190287757
    Abstract: An electron beam device suitable for observing the bottom of a deep groove or hole with a high degree of accuracy under a large current condition includes: an electron optical system having an irradiation optical system to irradiate a first aperture with an electron beam emitted from an electron source and a reduction projection optical system to project and form an aperture image of the first aperture on a sample, detectors to detect secondary electrons emitted by irradiating the sample with the electron beam through the electron optical system. An image processing unit generates a two-dimensional image from detection signals obtained by irradiating the sample while the electron beam scans the sample two-dimensionally by scanning deflectors of the electron optical system. Further, generates a reconstructed image by deconvoluting electron beam intensity distribution information of an ideal aperture image of the first aperture from the generated two-dimensional image information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Publication date: September 19, 2019
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Yasunari SOHDA, Momoyo ENYAMA, Megumi KIMURA, Koichi HAMADA
  • Publication number: 20190198284
    Abstract: Provided is a high-brightness, high-current electron source including a wire-like member. The wire-like member has an electron emission plane at the tip of the wire-like member. The electron emission plane has a projectingly curved surface. At least the surface of the electron emission plane is formed of an amorphous material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2016
    Publication date: June 27, 2019
    Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Soichiro MATSUNAGA, Yasunari SOHDA, Souichi KATAGIRI, Hajime KAWANO, Takashi DOI
  • Publication number: 20190148108
    Abstract: A pattern measuring device ensures highly accurately measuring a depth and a three-dimensional shape irrespective of a formation accuracy of a deep trench and/or a deep hole. Therefore, in the present invention, the measuring system detects backscattered electrons from a pattern caused by an irradiation, compares backscattered electron signal intensities from a top surface, a bottom surface, and a sidewall of the pattern, and calculates a three-dimensional shape (or height information) of the sidewall based on a difference in heights of the top surface and the lower surface. The measuring system compares the calculated three-dimensional shape of the sidewall with a three-dimensional shape of the sidewall estimated based on an intensity distribution (open angle) of a primary electron beam, corrects the estimated three-dimensional shape of the sidewall based on a difference in the comparison, and corrects until the difference in the comparison becomes an acceptable value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2018
    Publication date: May 16, 2019
    Inventors: Wei SUN, Yasunari SOHDA, Taku NINOMIYA, Yasunori GOTO
  • Publication number: 20190074159
    Abstract: The present invention enlarges a range of movement of field of view by beam deflection with a simple deflector configuration and suppresses deterioration of a signal electron detection rate caused by the beam deflection. A scanning electron microscope according to the present invention is provided with a first deflection field setting module that sets plural deflectors to move a scanning area on a specimen by a primary electron beam to a position deviated from an axis extended from an electron source toward the center of an objective lens and a second deflection field setting module that sets the plural deflectors so that trajectories of signal electrons are corrected without changing the scanning area set by the first deflection field setting module. The control unit controls the plural deflectors by adding a setting value set by the second deflection field setting module to a setting value set by the first deflection field setting module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2018
    Publication date: March 7, 2019
    Inventors: Noritsugu Takahashi, Yasunari Sohda, Akira Ikegami, Yuta Kawamoto
  • Publication number: 20190066969
    Abstract: There is provided a charged particle beam apparatus including: a charged particle source; a condenser lens and an object lens for converging a charged particle beam from the charged particle source and irradiating the converged charged particle beam to a specimen; and plural image shift deflectors for deflecting the charged particle beam. In the charged particle beam apparatus, the deflection of the charged particle beam is controlled using first control parameters that set the optical axis of a charged particle beam to a first optical axis that passes through the center of the object lens and enters a predefined position of the specimen, and second control parameters that transform the first control parameters so that the first control parameters set the optical axis of the charged particle beam to a second optical axis having a predefined incident angle different from the incident angle of the first optical axis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2018
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Inventors: Kaori BIZEN, Yasunari SOHDA, Makoto SAKAKIBARA, Hiroya OHTA, Kenji TANIMOTO, Yusuke ABE