Patent ID: 8928485
Filing Date: 2015-01-06
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
1. A charged particle beam apparatus for automatically photographing a series of tilted images, comprising: a sample pedestal configured to rotatably hold a sample; a radiation optical system configured to radiate a charged particle beam to the sample; a detector configured to detect the charged particle beam after the charged particle beam is transmitted through the sample and secondary electrons which are generated from the sample by the charged particle beam, wherein the detector comprises a transmitted charged particle detector and a secondary charged particle detector; a sample pedestal control device configured to control at east a rotation angle of the sample pedestal; and an arithmetic device configured to control at least the radiation optical system or the sample pedestal control device, wherein the arithmetic device is configured to: form a secondary charged particle image based on an output of the detector, form a template image based on the secondary charged particle image calculate a degree of coincidence between the template image and tilted secondary charged particle images obtained after the sample is tilted by the sample pedestal control device, perform a correction when the tilted secondary charged particle image disappears from a field of view, based on the calculated degree of coincidence, perform a focal point correction by using a relation between an amount of focus shift, based on an image correction between an in-focus image and a defocused image, and the degree of coincidence, wherein the degree of coincidence is obtained prior to performing the focal point correction, and form a transmitted charged particle image based on an output of the transmitted charged particle detector following the focal point correction.