JP2007303910A - Surface analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correct properly positional deviation of a characteristic X-ray image by detecting accurately deviation of an image for correction caused by drift, even when an image has an almost uniform pattern in one direction. <P>SOLUTION: When two SEM images at separated times are acquired, existence of translation symmetry of the images is detected (S1), and in the case where the translation symmetry exists (YES in S2), two-dimensional image matching by a mutual correlation method is performed to the two SEM images, to thereby calculate a positional deviation quantity and the direction (S3), and then one-dimensional image matching restricted to a direction having a small variation is executed, to thereby calculate the positional deviation quantity (S4). A result of the two-dimensional image matching is corrected by using the result, to thereby determine the deviation quantity and the direction (S5), and two-dimensional/one-dimensional matching is repeated until the specified number of times is reached (S6). A laser irradiation position at the two-dimensional scanning time is finely adjusted, based on positional deviation information determined in this way, to thereby correct the deviation of the characteristic X-ray image. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a surface analysis apparatus that performs surface analysis of a sample, and more specifically, irradiates a sample surface with excitation beams such as an electron beam, a proton beam, an ion beam, a fast atom beam, an α-ray, and an X-ray, thereby The present invention relates to a surface analysis apparatus that detects characteristic X-rays, Auger electrons, and the like emitted from a sample and obtains a surface image of a two-dimensional range of the sample by moving the irradiation position of the excitation beam on the sample surface.

  Various types of devices are put to practical use as surface analyzers that irradiate a sample with an electron beam or other electromagnetic waves such as X-rays as excitation rays and detect and image various particles and X-rays emitted from the sample. It has become. For example, in an electron beam microanalyzer (also referred to as EPMA: electron beam probe microanalyzer), a sample is irradiated with an electron beam focused to a minute diameter as an excitation beam. Since characteristic X-rays having energy peculiar to the elements contained in the sample are generated from the irradiation position of the electron beam, the characteristic X-rays are detected and analyzed for the energy and intensity, so that a minute region on the sample is detected. The contained elements can be identified and quantified. Then, by scanning the irradiation position of the electron beam within a predetermined two-dimensional range on the sample and repeating the same analysis, the elements contained in different microregions within the range and their contents can be examined. Based on this, an element mapping image showing a distribution state of elements in a predetermined range on the sample can be created.

  In general, characteristic X-rays and Auger electrons emitted from a sample in response to excitation beam irradiation have a much weaker signal intensity than secondary electrons and reflected electrons emitted from the sample. Therefore, in order to obtain a surface image with a practical S / N ratio, it is necessary to integrate the detection signals over a certain period of time, and it takes a relatively long time to acquire one fine surface image. . Therefore, due to thermal expansion of the sample during image acquisition, fluctuations in the surrounding electromagnetic conditions, etc., the phenomenon that the image signal that originally obtained the image signal in the same range gradually shifts in position over time (hereinafter, In this specification, this phenomenon is called drift).

  Assume that during the acquisition of a surface image using one characteristic X-ray, a drift occurs in which a circular or rectangular image pattern moves as indicated by an arrow in FIG. When the image signals that are shifted in this way are integrated, the image obtained thereby causes distortion in the image pattern or reduction in spatial resolution as shown in FIG. 10B. In order to reduce the influence of such drift, for example, conventionally, as described in Patent Document 1, a scan image is subjected to arithmetic processing over time to obtain a deviation amount, and the electron beam irradiation axis is corrected so as to correct the deviation amount. A method of performing the adjustment is known. However, it is difficult to obtain the shift amount in a scanned image based on weak signal intensity such as characteristic X-rays. Therefore, it is conceivable to perform correction by calculating a deviation amount using an SEM image of secondary electrons or the like that can be acquired in a short time because the signal intensity is relatively high (see Patent Document 2, etc.).

  That is, before or during imaging of a surface image (characteristic X-ray image) by characteristic X-rays, SEM images by secondary electrons or the like are taken at regular time intervals to obtain correction images, and this correction image is used. The amount and direction of displacement of the electron beam irradiation position during imaging are obtained. Then, while correcting the moving position of the sample stage holding the sample or the deflection of the electron beam by the deflecting lens so as to cancel the obtained amount and direction of the deviation, the image signal is collected by characteristic X-rays and the like. The obtained signals are integrated for each pixel to finally form a characteristic X-ray image having a high S / N ratio.

  Conventionally, a cross-correlation method using a two-dimensional discrete Fourier transform / inverse transform in order to calculate the amount and direction of deviation between two correction images obtained at different points in time as described above. Two-dimensional image matching methods such as are used. In the case of a normal image pattern as shown in FIG. 10, the amount and direction of deviation can be calculated fairly accurately by such a method. However, there are cases where the positional deviation cannot be obtained accurately depending on the nature of the image pattern.

  For example, an enlarged image of a semiconductor substrate surface or the like as shown in FIG. 9A has an almost uniform image pattern in a certain direction, and the accuracy of two-dimensional image matching in that direction is extremely low. As described above, when the image pattern has almost no change in a certain direction, that is, has a translational symmetry, the position correction in that direction cannot be obtained accurately, and the accuracy of drift correction also decreases. There is a problem.

JP-A-63-190236 JP 05-290787 A

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the object of the present invention is to determine the amount and direction of positional deviation with high accuracy even for a sample in which an image pattern has translational symmetry. An object of the present invention is to provide a surface analysis apparatus that can obtain and correct drift.

The present invention, which has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, is relatively weak due to an excitation-ray irradiation unit that irradiates a sample with excitation rays, and characteristic X-rays or predetermined particles emitted from the sample by irradiation of the excitation rays. A detection unit for detecting a signal, and corresponding to the predetermined range by two-dimensional scanning the relative positional relationship between the sample and the excitation line so that the irradiation position of the excitation line is moved within the predetermined range on the sample surface In the surface analyzer that acquires the surface image of the sample to be
a) Before and during the acquisition of one surface image, a relatively strong signal from a predetermined particle obtained from the sample in response to the irradiation of the excitation beam is detected, and the predetermined range is handled based on the signal Correction image acquisition means for creating each correction image to be performed,
b) Translation symmetry detection means for comparing a plurality of correction images obtained at different time points by the correction image acquisition means to determine whether or not the image pattern has translational symmetry;
c) When it is determined that there is translational symmetry, it is based on positional deviation information obtained by two-dimensional image matching for multiple correction images and one-dimensional image matching limited to the direction in which translational symmetry is seen. Misregistration information calculating means for calculating the amount and direction of misregistration based on the obtained misregistration information;
d) During the two-dimensional scanning for acquiring the one surface image, scanning is performed while finely adjusting the movement of the sample and / or the deflection of the excitation line so as to correct the positional deviation of each pixel based on the positional deviation information. Control means for executing
It is characterized by having.

  In the surface analysis apparatus according to the present invention, in addition to the electron beam, for example, a proton beam, an ion beam, a fast atom beam, an α-ray, an X-ray or the like can be used as the excitation beam. The “relatively weak signal due to the characteristic X-rays and predetermined particles emitted from the sample” refers to, for example, signals due to Auger electrons in addition to characteristic X-rays. On the other hand, the “relatively strong signal due to predetermined particles obtained from a sample” refers to a signal due to, for example, secondary electrons or reflected electrons.

  In the surface analysis apparatus according to the present invention, positional deviation information (amount (size) and direction of deviation) is obtained by using image matching based on two correction images obtained at a certain time interval. At that time, the translational symmetry detecting means determines whether or not the image pattern has translational symmetry. Here, the translational symmetry means that the pattern hardly changes even when the image pattern is translated in a certain direction such as the vertical direction, the horizontal direction, or the oblique direction in the two-dimensional image. However, when the pattern is completely uniform in a certain direction, it is clear that the position shift cannot be detected when the translation in that direction occurs. Therefore, the determination of the translational symmetry here is not a determination of the presence or absence of such complete translational symmetry but a determination as to whether or not it can be considered to have a certain degree of translational symmetry. .

  When it can be considered that there is no translational symmetry, it only calculates misalignment information by two-dimensional image matching for a plurality of correction images, but when it can be considered that there is translational symmetry, it is two-dimensional. In addition to calculating misregistration information by image matching, misregistration information is also calculated by one-dimensional image matching limited to a direction in which translational symmetry is observed, that is, a direction in which the variation amount of the image pattern is relatively small. According to such one-dimensional image matching, in two-dimensional image matching, it is easy to capture the positional deviation in the direction of small fluctuation, which is buried (masked) in the direction of large fluctuation and difficult to be reflected. The amount and direction of deviation can be detected with high accuracy. By correcting the misalignment information obtained by two-dimensional image matching based on the misalignment information obtained by the one-dimensional image matching thus obtained, the amount and direction of misregistration can also be obtained for an image having translational symmetry. It can be determined accurately.

  Of course, the calculation accuracy can be further improved by repeating the calculation of the positional deviation by two-dimensional image matching and the calculation of the positional deviation by one-dimensional image matching. When the positional deviation information is obtained based on the correction image in this way, the control unit performs each of the two-dimensional scanning for obtaining one surface image based on the positional deviation information corrected as described above. Scanning is performed while finely adjusting the movement of the sample and / or the deflection of the excitation line so as to correct the positional deviation of the pixels. Thereby, the positional deviation of the image due to the drift up to that time is reduced by the correction.

  As described above, according to the surface analysis apparatus of the present invention, even if the image has translational symmetry, which is difficult to accurately correct the positional deviation by the conventional method, the positional deviation of the image pattern due to the drift. It is possible to accurately detect the amount and direction. Thereby, also for an image having an image pattern with such a specific property, distortion of a surface image such as a characteristic X-ray image obtained as a result of integration processing and a decrease in spatial resolution can be suppressed.

  An electron beam microanalyzer that is an embodiment of a surface analysis apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a main part of an electron beam microanalyzer according to the present embodiment.

  In this apparatus, an electron beam E as an excitation beam emitted from the electron gun 1 is focused by the objective lens 3 through the deflection coil 2 and irradiated onto the upper surface of the sample S placed on the sample stage 4. . The sample stage 4 can be moved in the three axial directions of the X axis, the Y axis, and the Z axis by the driving force of the stage driving unit 5 including a motor, and is moved on the sample S by the movement in the X axis-Y axis direction. The irradiation position of the electron beam E is changed (scanned), and the irradiation diameter is changed by movement in the Z-axis direction. When the sample S is irradiated with the electron beam E having a small diameter, a characteristic X-ray having a wavelength peculiar to the element contained in the sample S is emitted at the irradiation position, and this characteristic X-ray is detected by the X-ray detector 6. The

  A detection signal from the X-ray detector 6 is sent to a data processing unit 12 that is functionally included in a personal computer (PC) 10, and the data processing unit 12 executes element identification processing and quantitative processing based on the detection value. At the same time, a sample image (surface image in the present invention) such as a mapping image of each element is created based on the result obtained by two-dimensional scanning, as will be described later.

  On the other hand, secondary electrons and reflected electrons are also generated from the sample S by irradiation with the electron beam E. These electrons are detected by the electron detector 7. The detection signal of the electron detector 7 is sent to the image signal processing unit 16, and the image signal processing unit 16 creates an SEM image on the surface of the sample S by two-dimensional scanning as will be described later. The SEM image is sent to the PC 10 and input to the correction calculation processing unit 13. The correction calculation processing unit 13 obtains information necessary for correction of misalignment by executing a predetermined calculation process based on data constituting the SEM image.

  The PC 10 functionally includes a central control unit 11 that controls the operation of each unit, a data processing unit 12, and a correction calculation processing unit 13, and an operation unit 14, a display unit 15, and the like are connected thereto. The deflection coil control unit 18 controls the excitation current supplied to the deflection coil 2 under the overall control of the central control unit 11 to bend the electron beam E irradiated on the sample S two-dimensionally by a magnetic field. Thereby, the irradiation position of the electron beam E can be scanned. Similarly, the sample stage control unit 19 controls the operation of the stage driving unit 5 under the overall control of the central control unit 11 to scan the position on the sample S where the electron beam E hits. Thus, the two-dimensional scanning of the electron beam E irradiation position on the sample S can be performed by either the control of the deflection coil 2 or the drive control of the sample stage 4, but the former has a higher scanning speed than the latter. However, the scannable range is narrow. Therefore, normally, when the target range for which an image is desired to be acquired is somewhat wide, basically, the two-dimensional scanning is performed by the drive control of the sample stage 4, and the deflection of the electron beam E is used as necessary.

  Next, a characteristic operation when acquiring a surface image (characteristic X-ray image) on the sample S in the electron beam microanalyzer of the present embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. . FIG. 2 is a timing chart of the image acquisition operation, FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart for calculating misregistration correction information, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a translational symmetry detection operation, and FIG. 5 is a correlation state between images having translational symmetry. FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are diagrams for explaining a positional deviation calculation method when there is translational symmetry.

  Since the characteristic X-rays emitted from the sample S in response to the irradiation with the electron beam E have a low intensity, the two-dimensional scanning of the target range on the sample S is repeated and obtained corresponding to each minute region in the range. The characteristic X-ray detection signals are integrated for each minute region to form a surface image in the target range. For this reason, it takes a certain amount of time to acquire one characteristic X-ray image (surface image), and there is a high possibility that an image shift occurs due to drift during that time.

  Therefore, in the electron microanalyzer according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2A, the acquisition period W1 of one characteristic X-ray image is divided into a plurality (w1, w2,...) Between each. As shown in FIGS. 2 (b) and 2 (c), a pause period is provided, and SEM image acquisition periods u1, u2,... Provide a period. Since the signal intensity due to the secondary electrons and reflected electrons emitted from the sample S in response to the irradiation with the electron beam E is much stronger than the characteristic X-ray, the SEM image has a relatively low S / N ratio in a short time. You can get something expensive.

  First, in the SEM image acquisition period u1 before the start of characteristic X-ray image acquisition, the irradiation position of the electron beam E within the target range on the sample S under the control of the sample stage control unit 19 that has received an instruction from the central control unit 11 The stage drive unit 5 moves the sample stage 4 so that the sample stage 4 is scanned two-dimensionally. During this two-dimensional scanning, secondary electrons and reflected electrons emitted from the sample S in response to the irradiation of the electron beam E are detected by the electron detector 7, and an SEM image of the target range is created by the image signal processing unit 16. The Here, the SEM image created first is called U1. The SEM image U1 is input to the correction calculation processing unit 13 and temporarily stored in, for example, a frame memory.

  In the first characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w1, the detection of characteristic X-rays corresponding to two-dimensional scanning within the target range on the sample S is executed, and then the first pause period is entered. In the SEM image acquisition period u2, the SEM image in the target range is acquired in the same manner as described above. Here, the SEM image acquired for the second time is referred to as U2. When the SEM image U2 is input to the correction calculation processing unit 13, the correction calculation processing unit 13 uses the two SEM images U1 and U2 combined with the SEM image U1 previously stored in the frame memory as follows. Corrective correction processing is executed.

  In general, a two-dimensional image matching method such as a cross-correlation method is used as described above in order to calculate the amount and direction of positional deviation between the patterns of two images. However, in the case of a normal image, the amount and direction of misregistration can be obtained with high accuracy by such a method, but in the case of an image having translational symmetry, misregistration cannot be obtained correctly. In view of this, in the surface analysis apparatus of the present embodiment, positional deviation information is obtained from two SEM images by a characteristic method as follows.

First, the correction calculation processing unit 13 detects the presence or absence of translational symmetry based on the two SEM images U1 and U2 (step S1). That is, the gradient vector of the cross-correlation function is obtained for each pixel of both the images U1 and U2, and the principal component analysis using these as measured values is performed. As a result, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the i-th (i = 1, 2) principal component vector α _i ↑ and the i-th factor θ _i (> 0) are obtained. To represent). Note that α _i ↑ constitutes an orthonormal basis. At this time, the first factor θ ₁ and the second factor θ ₂ are compared, and if θ ₁ >> θ ₂ , it is determined that there is translational symmetry (YES in step S2). Specifically, for example, it can be determined that there is translational symmetry when θ ₁ ≧ θ ₂ × 100, but this determination condition may be changed as appropriate.

If it is determined that there is translational symmetry, the cross-correlation function shape becomes a ridge shape as shown three-dimensionally in FIG. For this reason, even if the peak of the cross correlation function is searched, the fluctuation amount in the α ₂ ↑ direction is buried in the fluctuation amount in the α ₁ ↑ direction and cannot be detected correctly. Therefore, the correction calculation processing unit 13 performs the two-dimensional image matching by the cross-correlation method on the two SEM images U1 and U2 to calculate the amount and direction of the positional deviation (step S3), and then the image The amount of positional deviation is calculated by executing one-dimensional image matching limited to the α ₂ ↑ direction where the pattern variation is small (step S4), and the result of the two-dimensional image matching is corrected using the result. The amount of displacement and the direction of the position are obtained (step S5). Such two-dimensional / one-dimensional matching is repeated until a predetermined number of times is reached (step S6).

The processing of steps S3 to S5 will be specifically described with an example. The calculation of the misregistration between the two correction images f and g is the cross-correlation of f and g expressed by the following equation: C ₂ [f, g] (x, y) = Σf (x′−x, y′−y) g (x ′, y ′)
= F ₂ ⁻¹ {F ₂ [f] (−u, −v) F ₂ [g] (u, v)} (x, y) (1)
This is done by determining the position of the peak. In Equation (1), Σ is the sum of x ′ and y ′, and F ₂ and F ₂ ⁻¹ are the two-dimensional discrete Fourier transform and its inverse transform, respectively. Therefore, the two-dimensional cross-correlation function of the two-dimensional images h ₁ and h ₂ corresponding to the SEM images U 1 and U ₂ is represented by C ₂ [h ₁ ; h ₂ ].

Further, the parallel movement of the image h in the d ↑ direction is limited to S [h; d ↑] on the straight line L of the image h as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, that is, the vertical including the straight line L. A profile (one variable) representing a surface contour line in the cross section is represented by R [h; L], and a cross-correlation function in which the positional deviation is limited to the α ₂ ↑ direction is represented by C ₁ [h ₁ , h ₂ ; α ₂ ↑ ]
C ₁ [f, g; α ₂ ↑] (t) = Σ {ΣR [f; L _i ] (t′−t) R [g; L _i ] (t ′)}
= Σ {F ₁ ⁻¹ {F ₁ [R [f; L _i ]] (− u) F ₁ [R [g; L _i ]] (u)} (t)} (2)
In equation (2), the first Σ is the sum for i, the second Σ is the sum for t ′, and F ₁ and F ₁ ⁻¹ are the one-dimensional discrete Fourier transform and its inverse transform, respectively. .

In addition, L _i (i = 1, 2,...) Is selected from some straight lines parallel to the α ₂ ↑ direction that have a large fluctuation amount of the profile R [f; L _i ] of f. That is, as shown in FIG. 7, a straight line parallel to the α ₂ ↑ direction can be drawn innumerably on a two-dimensional image, but a straight line having a non-uniform image pattern in the direction has a variation amount. A straight line that is relatively large and does not have such an image pattern has a small amount of variation. However, if only adjacent straight lines are selected, the accuracy deteriorates. Therefore, it is desirable to select straight lines separated from each other if they exist.

Under the above definition, the displacement vector d _n ↑ including the amount and direction of the displacement between the two images f and g can be obtained by the following procedure. That is,
g ₀ : = g; d ₀ ↑ = 0
For n = 0, 1, 2,... Until convergence, a shift vector λ _n ↑ in the α ₂ ↑ direction that maximizes C ₂ [f, g _n ] is obtained based on the equation (1).
g _n ^* : = S [g _n ; λ _n ↑]
d _n ^* ↑: = d _n ↑ + λ _n ↑
Thereby, the positional deviation information by the two-dimensional image matching in step S3 is obtained. Next, a shift amount t _n in the α ₂ ↑ direction that maximizes C ₁ [f, g ^* ; α ₂ ↑] is obtained based on the equation (2).
g _{n + 1} : = S [g _n ^* ; t _n α _n ↑]
d _{n + 1} ↑: = d _n ^* ↑ + t _n α _n ↑
As a result, the amount of deviation due to one-dimensional image matching in step S4 is determined, and correction of the amount of deviation in step S5 is achieved.

  In the case of returning from step S6 to S2, the above procedure may be repeated. This repetition can further improve the calculation accuracy of the positional deviation, but this repetition is not essential.

  If it is determined in step S2 that there is no translational symmetry, the process proceeds to step S7, and only the calculation of positional deviation information by normal two-dimensional image matching needs to be executed.

  The positional deviation information (amount and direction of positional deviation) calculated in consideration of translational symmetry as described above is sent to the central control unit 11 and stored in a memory or the like. In the next characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w2, when the characteristic X-ray detection is restarted and two-dimensional scanning is performed, the central control unit 11 determines the correction amount of each pixel (based on the positional deviation information stored in the memory). That is, when the irradiation position of the electron beam E is determined so as to obtain a characteristic X-ray corresponding to each pixel, the sample stage is calculated by the correction amount for each pixel. 4 or the control amount of the deflection coil 2 is adjusted. Thereby, in the characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w2, the influence of the drift that has occurred until the SEM image U2 is acquired is reduced. In particular, even when the direction of drift is the direction of translational symmetry of the image pattern, highly accurate correction is possible, and the image obtained in the characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w1 and the characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w2 are obtained. There is almost no displacement from the image.

  When the second pause period starts after the divided characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w2, a new SEM image U3 is newly acquired in the SEM image acquisition period u3 as described above. If there is a drift during the immediately preceding characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w2, there is also an image shift between the SEM images U2 and U3. Therefore, correction processing similar to the above is performed using the SEM images U1 and U3 to obtain new misalignment information, and based on this, correction during two-dimensional scanning in the next characteristic X-ray image acquisition period w3 is performed. To do.

  In this way, by reducing the influence of drift that has occurred so far during the period of acquiring one characteristic X-ray image, the distortion in the characteristic X-ray image finally obtained by the integration process can be reduced. The spatial resolution can also be increased.

  8 and 9 show the results of verifying the image distortion reduction effect by the correction method according to the present invention described above by simulation. FIGS. 8 and 9 are the verification results for the normal image and the translational symmetric image, respectively. (A) is the initial image, and (b) is the image at a certain point in time during the acquisition of the characteristic X-ray image. Then, as described above, the positional deviation information is obtained based on both images, and the image obtained when the irradiation position of the electron beam is corrected based on this information is obtained by calculating by simulation in (c). is there. In any case, it can be seen that the drift from the state (a) to the state (b) has returned almost to the same position as the initial image as shown in the correction result (c). That is, the drift correction is achieved not only in the normal image but also in the translational symmetric image, which is difficult to be corrected by the conventional method.

  The above-described embodiment is an embodiment of the present invention, and it is obvious that the present invention is encompassed in the scope of claims of the present application even if appropriate changes, modifications, and additions are made within the scope of the present invention.

The block diagram of the principal part of the electron beam microanalyzer by one Example of this invention. The timing diagram of the image acquisition operation | movement in the electron beam microanalyzer of a present Example. 4 is a schematic flowchart for calculating misalignment correction information in the electron beam microanalyzer of the present embodiment. Explanatory drawing of the detection operation | movement of the translational symmetry in the electron beam microanalyzer of a present Example. The figure which shows the correlation state between the images which have translational symmetry in the electron beam microanalyzer of a present Example. The figure for demonstrating the position shift calculation method in case there exists translational symmetry in the electron beam microanalyzer of a present Example. The figure for demonstrating the position shift calculation method in case there exists translational symmetry in the electron beam microanalyzer of a present Example. The figure which shows the verification result of the position shift correction method by a present Example with respect to a normal image. The figure which shows the verification result of the position shift correction method by a present Example with respect to a translation symmetrical image. The schematic diagram for demonstrating the problem of the image shift by drift.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Electron gun 2 ... Deflection coil 3 ... Objective lens 4 ... Sample stage 5 ... Stage drive part 6 ... X-ray detector 7 ... Electron detector E ... Electron beam 10 ... PC
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Central control part 12 ... Data processing part 13 ... Correction calculation processing part 14 ... Operation part 15 ... Display part 16 ... Image signal processing part 18 ... Deflection coil control part 19 ... Sample stage control part

Claims (1)

An excitation beam irradiating unit that irradiates the sample with an excitation beam; and a detection unit that detects a characteristic X-ray emitted from the sample by irradiation of the excitation beam and a relatively weak signal due to predetermined particles. In the surface analysis apparatus for acquiring a surface image of the sample corresponding to the predetermined range by two-dimensional scanning the relative positional relationship between the sample and the excitation line so as to move the irradiation position of the sample in a predetermined range on the sample surface,
a) Before and during the acquisition of one surface image, a relatively strong signal from a predetermined particle obtained from the sample in response to the irradiation of the excitation beam is detected, and the predetermined range is handled based on the signal Correction image acquisition means for creating each correction image to be performed,
b) Translation symmetry detection means for comparing a plurality of correction images obtained at different time points by the correction image acquisition means to determine whether or not the image pattern has translational symmetry;
c) When it is determined that there is translational symmetry, it is based on positional deviation information obtained by two-dimensional image matching for multiple correction images and one-dimensional image matching limited to the direction in which translational symmetry is seen. Misregistration information calculating means for calculating the amount and direction of misregistration based on the obtained misregistration information;
d) During the two-dimensional scanning for acquiring the one surface image, scanning is performed while finely adjusting the movement of the sample and / or the deflection of the excitation line so as to correct the positional deviation of each pixel based on the positional deviation information. Control means for executing
A surface analysis apparatus comprising: