Abstract: The present invention provides a wafer inspection technique capable of detecting a defect in a wafer on which a pattern having a large step such as a contact hole being subjected to a semiconductor manufacturing process is formed and obtaining information such as the position and kind of a defect such as a hole with open contact failure caused in dry etching process at high speed. A wafer on which a pattern having a large step being subjected to a semiconductor manufacturing process is formed is scanned and irradiated with an electron beam having irradiation energy which is in a range from 100 eV to 1,000 eV, and a defect is detected at high speed from an image of secondary electrons generated. Before the secondary electron image is captured, the wafer is irradiated with an electron beam at high speed while being moved to thereby charge the surface of the wafer with a desired charging voltage.

Abstract: An accelerator (10) generates an electron beam (22) of selected energy that is swept (16) up and down. A conveyor (32) moves items (30) through the electron beam for irradiation treatment. An array (40a) of inductive electron beam strength detectors is disposed on a down stream side of the item to detect the energy of the electron beam exiting the item at the plurality of altitudes. The electron beam strength entering and leaving the item are communicated to a processor (54) which determines the absorbed dose of radiation absorbed by the item. The dose information is archived (56) or compared by a parameter adjustment processor (58) with target doses and deviations are used to control one or more of MeV or beam current of the electron beam, the sweep rate, and the conveying speed of the items. Each of the detectors includes a vacuum chamber in which two current transformers (60, 62) disposed on either side of a metal foil layer (64).

Abstract: A device (12) serves as a means for testing a mat (11) moved in one direction (7) and made of biomass particles for manufacturing boards, more specifically in a double band press. On one side of the mat (11), radiation sources (33, 35) are positioned with a transversely spaced-apart relationship (30) transverse to the direction of motion (7). On the other side of the mat (11), a line (34, 36) of detector elements (44, 44′, 51) is arranged beneath each of the radiation sources (33, 35), a fan-shaped beam (37) impinging on said detector elements. The beam passes either only through one standard body (43) or only through the mat (11) or through neither the standard body nor the mat and is received by the detector elements and converted into electrical output signals.

Abstract: A spectroscopy instrument that uses spectra produced from random binary sequence modulated data. Statistical estimation techniques are used to achieve resolution enhancement, while properly accounting for the Poisson noise distribution and other artifacts introduced by a modulator or “chopper” or other system components. Indeed, a resolution similar to that of modem spectrometers can be achieved with a dramatic performance advantage over conventional, serial detection analyzers. Both static and dynamic behaviors are theoretically or measured experimentally accounted for in the model as determined. In one embodiment, the finite penetration of the field beyond the plane of the chopper leads to non-ideal chopper response, which is characterized in terms of an “energy corruption” effect and a lead or lag in the time at which the beam responds to the chopper potential.

Abstract: The invention relates to an electrode arrangement for an electronic component, also acting as a support for sensors. Said electrode arrangement is mounted on a substrate (1) as a suitably dimensioned surface-structure of two electro-conductive electrodes which are not electrically connected to one another. The electrode arrangement reproduces the conductivities and/or the substance of a sensor-active layer on the conductance of a measuring head or a functional element when said conductivities of the electrode arrangement and/or substance of a sensor-active layer are reproduced in a highly flexible manner. Said electrode arrangement can be produced in a simple and cost-effective manner. The invention provides for a plurality of conductive islands (3) which are not linked or not essentially linked to one another and which are mounted on a dielectric substrate (1) between two electrodes (2) in the form of a planar two-dimensional arrangement.

Abstract: A method and a system for testing an electrical component in a non-contact manner at high speed with high reliability. The method includes the steps of positioning a primary particle beam onto the component, supplying an AC-signal to the electrode being positioned in front of the component and varying the frequency of the AC-signal, detecting secondary particles released at the component and penetrating the electrode to form a secondary particle signal, and evaluating the corresponding secondary particle signal.

Abstract: A device for measuring an incidence angle of an ion beam impinging a planar substrate includes an aperture plate having an aperture for intercepting the ion beam and passing a beam portion therethrough, and a sensor located in the substrate plane or a plane parallel thereto behind the aperture plate and having a length along which the beam portion impinges on the sensor at a location which is a function of the incidence angle of the ion beam, the sensor configured to produce a sensor signal indicative of the location of impingement of the beam portion on the sensor and representative of incidence angle. A computing unit may be configured to compare the sensor signal to a predetermined function for determining the incidence angle of the ion beam. Spaced apart sensing devices may be used to determine beam divergence.

Abstract: An accelerator (10) generates an electron beam that is swept (16) up and down to form an electron beam (22). A conveyor (32) moves items (30) through the electron beam for irradiation treatment. A first array of inductive electron beam strength detectors' (40a) is disposed between the origin of the electron beam and a first item to be irradiated to measure the strength of the electron beam entering the item at a plurality of altitudes. A second array (42) of inductive electron beam strength detectors is disposed on the opposite side of the item to detect the strength of the electron beam exiting the item at the plurality of altitudes. In the illustrated embodiment, another item is positioned to be irradiated by the radiation that is passed through the first item. The second array thus detects the electron beam strength entering the second item and an analogous array (40c) measures the electron beam strength exiting the second item.

Abstract: Current density distributions of the ion beam in the scanning direction (the direction of X) at two points Zf and Zb on Z-coordinate are respectively measured by Faraday arrays. Using the thus measured current density distributions, a current density distribution in the scanning direction of the ion beam at an arbitrary position on Z-coordinate located in a workpiece is found by the method of interpolation. Using the thus found current density distribution, a waveform of scanning voltage V(t) of the ion beam is reformed so that a scanning speed of the ion beam can be relatively decreased at a position where the current density must be raised in the current density distribution and a scanning speed of the ion beam can be relatively increased at a position where the current density must be lowered. Due to the foregoing, a current density distribution in the scanning direction of the ion beam at an arbitrary position on Z-coordinate located in the workpiece is adjusted to a desired distribution.

Abstract: An improved tomographic technique for determining the power distribution of an electron or ion beam using electron beam profile data acquired by an enhanced modified Faraday cup to create an image of the current density in high and low power ion or electron beams. A refractory metal disk with a number of radially extending slits, one slit being about twice the width of the other slits, is placed above a Faraday cup. The electron or ion beam is swept in a circular pattern so that its path crosses each slit in a perpendicular manner, thus acquiring all the data needed for a reconstruction in one circular sweep. The enlarged slit enables orientation of the beam profile with respect to the coordinates of the welding chamber. A second disk having slits therein is positioned below the first slit disk and inside of the Faraday cup and provides a shield to eliminate the majority of secondary electrons and ions from leaving the Faraday cup.

Abstract: A thin foil stripper and simple non-obstructing power meter for a space based neutral particle beam system consisting of a panel of thin foils supported by resistance wires and mounted on a wheel or disk in such a manner that the surface used for stripping the beam may be changed or replaced periodically. The power meter consists of four resistors arranged in the form of a bridge, a power source (battery), a detector (voltmeter), and a display unit (recorded, etc.). Two of the resistors consist of the wires which support the foils and are nearly identical. The other two resistors are used to balance the bridge. When one of the strippers is exposed to the neutral particle beam, the support wire is heated, the resistance changes, and the bridge becomes unbalanced. The magnitude of the voltage produced is proportional to the power in the beam. The power meter is non-obstructing.