Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method comprising:(a) scanning a surface of a semiconductor wafer with a charged particle beam along at least one scan line while maintaining an electrode located at a vicinity of the wafer at a first voltage that is more positive than a voltage level of a first scanned portion of the wafer, collecting charged particles scattered from the first scanned portion; and generating an image of the first scanned portion in response to characteristics of the collected charged particles;(b) scanning the charged particle beam along at least one other scan line while maintaining the electrode at a second voltage that is lower than a voltage level of a second scanned portion of the wafer so as to passivate a positive charge generated in the wafer during scanning of the first scanned portion;(c) repeating scanning steps (a) and (b) until an image of a predefined section of the wafer is generated. 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising introducing a mechanical movement between the wafer and the electrode between scanning step (a) and (b). 3. The method of claim 1 wherein scanning the first scanned portion with the charged particle beam is performed at a first beam intensity and scanning the second scanned portion with the charged particle beam is performed at a second beam intensity that differs from the first beam intensity. 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the second beam intensity exceeds the first beam intensity. 5. The method of claim 1 further comprising a short duration stage of altering a voltage supplied to the electrode between scanning steps (a) and (b). 6. The method of claim 5 wherein altering the voltage comprises coupling the electrode to a first voltage supply, blanking the first voltage supply and then coupling the electrode to a second voltage supply. 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining at least one characteristic of scanning step (a) and scanning step (b) in response to estimated charging characteristics of the first and second portions. 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one characteristic is a duration of each scanning step. 9. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one characteristic is an intensity of the charged particle beam. 10. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one characteristic is a size of each of the first and second portions. 11. The method of claim 1 wherein the predefined section includes electrically floating chargeable elements. 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the predefined section includes at least one isolated electrically floating chargeable element. 13. The method of claim 1 wherein the first scanned portion is scanned before the second scanned portion. 14. The method of claim 1 wherein the second scanned portion is scanned before the first scanned portion. 15. The method of claim 1 wherein scanning step (a) comprises scanning the first scanned portion with the charged particle beam at a first landing energy and scanning step (b) comprises scanning the second scanned portion with the charged particle beam at a second landing energy that differs from the first landing energy. 16. A system, comprising:a charged particle beam source configured to produce a charged particle beam;an electrode located in a vicinity of a surface of a semiconductor the wafer;at least one detector, coupled to the electrode, adapted to collect charged particles scattered from the wafer when the charged particle beam scans the surface of the wafer; anda controller adapted to:(i) control the charged particle beam such that the charged particle beam scans along at least one scan line while the electrode is maintained at a first voltage that is more positive than a voltage level of a first scanned portion of the wafer, and to allow the detector to collect charged particles scattered from the first scanned portion;(ii) control the charged particle beam such that the charged particle beam scans along at least one other scan line while the electrode is maintained at a second voltage that is lower than a voltage level of a second scanned portion of the wafer so as to passivate a positive charge generated in the wafer during scanning of the first scanned portion; and(iii) repeat (i) and (ii) until a predefined section of the wafer is scanned allowing generation of an image of the predefined section of the wafer from electrons collected by the detector during (i). 17. The system of claim 16 wherein the controller is further adapted to control a stage that introduces a mechanical movement between the wafer and the electrode. 18. The system of claim 16 wherein the controller is further adapted to control the intensity of the scanning charged particle beam. 19. The system of claim 16 wherein the electrode is coupled to an electrode power supply that is adapted to alter a voltage supplied to the electrode very rapidly. 20. The system of claim 16 wherein the controller is adapted to determine at least one characteristic of a scanning pattern. 21. The system of claim 20 wherein the characteristic is a duration of each stage that forms the scanning pattern. 22. The system of claim 20 wherein the characteristic is an intensity of the charged particle beam. 23. The system of claim 20 wherein the characteristic is a size of each of the first and second portions that collectively form the scanning pattern. 24. The system of claim 16 wherein the predefined section includes electrically floating chargeable elements. 25. The system of claim 16 wherein the predefined section includes at least one isolated electrically floating chargeable element. 26. The system of claim 16 wherein the first scanned portion is scanned before the second scanned portion. 27. The system of claim 16 wherein the second scanned portion is scanned before the first scanned portion. 28. The system of claim 16 wherein the controller is adapted to control the electron beam to scan the first scanned portion with a first landing energy and to scan the second scanned portion with a second landing energy that differs from the first landing energy. 29. The system of claim 16 wherein the controller is adapted to control the electron beam to scan the first scanned portion with a first current and to scan the second scanned portion with a second current that differs from the first current.