JP5189471B2 - Microscope observation equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an observation apparatus for observing a sample using an electron microscope, an optical microscope, or the like.

  It has been widely performed to apply various operations to a sample using a micromanipulator under magnified observation using a microscope. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a microknife for industrial purpose sampling that can excise and peel a sample having a size of 1 μm to 100 μm from a sample. The microknife is formed of a material having a Mohs hardness of 6 or more, and includes a blade that can cut and peel a sample of 50 μm or less. This microknife is operated by a commercially available micromanipulator. As described in FIG. 1 of this document, the micromanipulator 50 is arranged and fixed at a site different from the base 21 on which the sample 10 is placed. In general, the micromanipulator 50 including the micromanipulator 50 described in Patent Document 1 has a plurality of movable shafts in order to improve its operability. In various microscopes such as an electron microscope and an optical microscope, a sample stage on which a sample is placed also has a plurality of movable axes including the XY axis.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 10, an observation apparatus 100 in which a manipulator 150 is disposed and fixed on a sample stage 130 is also known (see Non-Patent Document 1). According to this type of apparatus, unlike the technique described in Patent Document 1, the sample stage 130 is moved up and down while the sample (not shown) is fixed by the micromanipulator 150, or the sample stage 130 is moved. It can be easily inclined.

JP 2002-22625 A "-Kleindiek Manipulator / Substage", [online], ad science, [searched on November 28, 2008], Internet <URL: http: //www.ads-img.co.jp/products/ kleindiek / pdf / 0706kleindiek.pdf>

In a microscope having a structure as in Patent Document 1, it is not easy to move the sample stage without changing the relative positions of the micromanipulator and the sample. Specifically, for example, using the observation apparatus 100 including the sample stage 130 and the micromanipulator 150 having the probe 151 at the tip shown in FIG. 9, the cuticle C of the hair H is peeled off with the probe 51 as shown in FIG. If you want to move the sample table up and down or tilt the sample table while maintaining this observation state, keep the observation state of the hair placed on the sample table with the probe. In addition, the probe needs to be precisely moved up and down and tilted in conjunction with the vertical movement and tilting of the sample stage. However, since the hair cuticle is generally fine, an operator is required to have a very skillful technique for maintaining the observation state of the hair by the probe by linking the movement of the probe to the movement of the sample stage.
On the other hand, in the case of Non-Patent Document 1, since the movement of the micromanipulator 150 is completely interlocked with the movement of the sample stage 130, the sample (not shown) is moved while the sample stage 130 is moved. The relative position of the micromanipulator 150 cannot be changed. For example, consider a case where the cuticle C of the hair H is peeled off by a probe 151 attached to the tip of the manipulator 150 as shown in FIG. In this case, as shown in FIG. 11A, it is difficult to peel the cuticle C by bringing the probe 151 closer from the width direction of the hair H. Therefore, the sample stage 120 is rotated 90 degrees, and the cuticle C is peeled off by bringing the probe 151 closer from the longitudinal direction of the hair H as shown in FIG. However, the apparatus shown in FIG. 10 has the disadvantage that this operation cannot be performed.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an observation apparatus for a microscope that can eliminate the disadvantages of the above-described prior art.

The present invention is an observation apparatus for a microscope having a base having a movable shaft, and a sample stage disposed on the base and having a movable shaft different from the movable shaft of the base,
A micromanipulator for manipulating a sample is attached to the base via a connecting member, and the operation of the movable axis of the base is interlocked with the movement of the micromanipulator, and the movement of the sample stage by the movable shaft is performed. It is an object of the present invention to provide an observation apparatus for a microscope which is not interlocked with the operation of the micromanipulator.

  According to the present invention, the sample stage on which the sample is placed can be easily moved without changing the relative position between the sample and the manipulator.

  The present invention will be described below based on preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows a base and a sample stage in an embodiment of the microscope observation apparatus (hereinafter also simply referred to as “observation apparatus”) according to the present invention. The observation apparatus 10 in this embodiment is arranged and fixed in a sample chamber of a scanning electron microscope (hereinafter referred to as “SEM”). The observation apparatus 10 includes a base 20 at the lower part thereof. The base 20 is fixed at a predetermined location in the sample chamber of the electron microscope. The base 20 is formed with a pair of left and right screw holes 20a on the front side thereof. A sample stage 30 is disposed on the upper part of the base 20. The sample stage 30 includes an XY stage 31 and a rotary stage 32. The sample stage 30 is a part on which a sample (not shown) that is an observation object is placed. The sample table 30 is a member having a movable shaft different from the base table 20. A sample (not shown) is placed on a rotary stage 32 in the sample stage 30.

  The base 20 has at least one movable shaft (degree of freedom). The sample stage 30 has at least one movable axis (degree of freedom) different from the movable axis of the base 20. Specifically, the observation apparatus 10 has a total of five movable axes, and these movable axes are allocated to the base 20 and the sample stage 30, respectively. Specifically, the base 20 has two movable axes, and the sample table 30 has three movable axes.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, the movable axis of the sample stage 30 includes an X axis and a Y axis perpendicular to the X axis, and rotation (rotation) in the XY plane as shown in FIG. There are three axes (hereinafter referred to as “R-axis”). A sample (not shown) is placed on a rotary stage having a placement surface in the XY plane.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the movable axis of the base 20 includes a Z axis orthogonal to the XY plane, and a tilt (tilt) axis with respect to the XY plane as shown in FIG. (Hereinafter referred to as “T-axis”). 3A and 3B, the XY plane extends in a direction orthogonal to the paper surface.

  The specific mechanism for realizing the movable shaft of the base 20 and the movable shaft of the sample stage 30 is not particularly limited, and a mechanism similar to a mechanism conventionally used in this type of technical field can be appropriately employed. Such mechanisms are well known to those skilled in the art and are well known without needing to be specifically described.

  The observation apparatus 10 includes a micromanipulator (hereinafter also simply referred to as “manipulator”) for operating the sample placed on the sample table 30 in addition to the base 20 and the sample table 30 described above. One of the features of the observation apparatus 10 of the present embodiment is that the manipulator is attached to the base 20 via a connecting member described later. The “operation” to the sample by the manipulator includes, for example, operations such as grasping, piercing, turning, pulling, twisting, cutting, crushing, contacting the sample, and partly peeling the sample. Of course, even operations not illustrated here include other operations necessary for observation of the sample.

  FIG. 4 shows a state where the manipulator 50 is attached to the connecting member 40. The connecting member 40 refers to a portion excluding the manipulator 50 in FIG. 4 (that is, a connecting structure portion of components illustrated by reference numerals in the 40th series in FIG. 4), and is configured by connecting a plurality of components with screws. Has been. Specifically, the connecting member 40 includes a plate-like gantry 41 to which the manipulator 50 is attached and fixed. A pair of manipulators 50 are attached to the gantry 41 along the longitudinal direction with the probes 51 of the manipulators 50 directed in the same direction. At each end in the longitudinal direction of the gantry 41, a prismatic standing portion 42 that is suspended from the end is attached. The gantry part 41 and the standing part 42 are orthogonal to each other. At the lower end portion of the standing portion 42, a prismatic reed portion 43 extending in the horizontal direction from the lower end portion is attached. The extending direction of the horizontal flange 43 coincides with the mounting direction of the probe 51 in the manipulator 50. The standing portion 42 and the recumbent portion 43 are orthogonal to each other. A prismatic attachment portion 44 for attaching the connecting member 40 to the base 20 is attached to the distal end portion of the recumbent portion 43. The attachment portion 44 extends in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the lateral flange portion 43 extends. Further, the attachment portion 44 extends inward from the distal end portion of the lateral flange portion 43 so that the distal end portions of the two attachment portions face each other (however, the length is such that the distal end portions do not contact each other). The recumbent part 43 and the attachment part 44 are orthogonal to each other.

  The recumbent part 43 and the attachment part 44 are provided with cutouts at their connecting portions, and the right-angled relationship is maintained by fitting these cutouts. Both of them are fixed by two screws 45c and 45d inserted in two directions (a-direction and b-direction) in which the perpendicular relationship intersects each other by 90 degrees. Similarly, the horizontal flange portion 43 and the standing portion 42 are also provided with cutouts in their connecting portions, and the right-angle relationship is maintained by fitting these cutouts. Both of them are fixed by screws inserted in two directions (a direction and b direction) in which the perpendicular relationship intersects each other by 90 degrees. In FIG. 4, only one screw 45b of the two screws is shown. Further, the gantry 41 and the standing portion 42 are fixed by screws 45a. In FIG. 4, a through hole 44 a is provided at the tip of the attachment portion 44. The manipulator 50 is moved to the base 20 via the connecting member 40 by aligning the through hole 44a and the screw hole 20a of the gantry 20 described above and passing the screw 20b (see FIG. 5 described later). Mounting is fixed.

  As described above, the connecting member 40 is fixed to the base 20 by screws. That is, the connecting member 40 is detachably fixed to the base 20. Therefore, when performing observation that does not require the manipulator 50, the manipulator 50 can be easily detached from the base 20, and the detachment operation can be performed easily and quickly.

  In addition, since the connecting member 40 is composed of a combination of a plurality of members such as the gantry portion 41, the standing portion 42, the recumbent portion 43, and the mounting portion 44, the dimensions and the like of these members can be changed as appropriate. The dimensions of the connecting member 40 can be flexibly adapted according to the size of the sample chamber of the microscope.

  In addition, two adjacent parts constituting the connecting member 40, that is, the gantry part 41 and the standing part 42, the standing part 42 and the horizontal part 43, and the horizontal part 43 and the attachment part 44 are connected so as to be orthogonal to each other. Therefore, even when the sample stage 30 receives vibration during observation, the vibration is successfully absorbed by the connecting portion of each part, the influence of vibration is reduced, and stable observation can be performed.

  FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the observation apparatus 10 in which the connecting member 40 having the manipulator 50 attached and fixed to the gantry 41 is attached to the base 20 with screws 20b. The observation apparatus 10 in this state is arranged and fixed in the sample chamber of the electron microscope. As described above, in the observation apparatus 10, the base 20 has two movable axes, the Z axis and the T axis, and the sample stage 30 has three movable axes, the X axis, the Y axis, and the R axis. Have. Since the manipulator 50 is attached to the base 20 via the connecting member 40, when the base 20 is moved in the Z-axis direction that is the movable axis or around the T-axis, the manipulator 50 is interlocked with the operation. Then, it operates in the Z-axis direction or around the T-axis. However, even if the sample stage 30 is moved along the X and Y directions, which are movable axes, or rotated around the R axis, the manipulator 50 does not interlock with those operations. As described above, in the observation apparatus 10, the operation of the two movable axes of the base 20 among the five movable axes of the observation apparatus 10 is interlocked with the operation of the manipulator 50. The operation by the movable shaft of the sample stage 30 is not interlocked with the operation of the manipulator 50.

  Note that the above description is not intended to exclude that the manipulator 50 itself has a movable shaft, and that the operation of the manipulator 50 is linked to the operation of the movable shaft of the base 20. In other words, the manipulator 50 itself may have a movable shaft different from the movable shaft of the base 20 in general. For example, the manipulator 50 can move left and right as shown in FIG. 6A, move up and down as shown in FIG. 6B, and extend and contract as shown in FIG. 6C. .

  A sample observation method using the observation apparatus 10 of the present embodiment having the above structure will be described with reference to FIG. The figure shows a state in which the cuticle C on the surface of the hair H is partially peeled and observed using the probe 51 of the manipulator 50.

  In general, it is known that the resolution of an observation image obtained by an electron microscope is increased by bringing a sample closer to a pole piece of an electron microscope. Even when the hair H in the state shown in FIG. 7 is observed, it is advantageous to bring the hair H close to the pole piece for the purpose of enhancing the resolution. By the way, the sample chamber of the electron microscope is designed so that its volume becomes as small as possible in order to achieve a high vacuum state in as short a time as possible. Therefore, even if the manipulator 50 is operated with the sample stage 30 raised to bring the hair H close to the pole piece and the cuticle C is peeled off, the manipulator 50 is operated due to the volume restriction of the sample chamber. Is often impossible or extremely difficult if possible. In such a case, the sample table 30 is lowered and retracted together with the base 20 to secure a space for operating the manipulator 50 above the sample chamber, and the cuticle C is peeled off by the probe 51 of the manipulator 50. An operation of realizing a state where C is partially peeled from the hair H and raising the sample stage 30 together with the base 20 while the state is maintained is performed. As described above, in the observation apparatus 10, when the base 20 is moved in the Z-axis direction that is the movable axis, the manipulator 50 is moved in the Z-axis direction in conjunction with the movement. Therefore, it is possible to easily remove the hair H from the pole piece without changing the relative position between the probe 51 of the manipulator 50 and the cuticle C of the hair H by a simple operation of raising the base 20 in the lowered / retracted state. The resolution can be easily increased. On the other hand, in the case of the observation apparatus having the structure shown in FIG. 9 described in the prior art section of this specification, the operator manually operates the manipulator 150 in conjunction with the rise of the base including the sample stage 130. Therefore, an extremely sophisticated and difficult operation is required to perform the ascending operation completely.

  FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate another advantage of the observation apparatus 10 of the present embodiment. This figure shows a state in which the cuticle C on the surface of the hair H is partially peeled and observed using the probe 51 of the manipulator 50 as in FIG. 7 described above. However, in this embodiment, unlike FIG. 7, the lower part of the cuticle C that has been peeled is observed. When this operation is performed, it is easy in terms of operation to peel the cuticle C located on the upper part of the hair H as shown in FIG. However, when the cuticle C located at the upper part of the hair H is peeled off, the lower part of the cuticle C becomes a shadow with respect to the electron beam due to the cuticle C that is partly peeled off, so that the part can be observed. Can not. On the other hand, if the observation apparatus 10 of this embodiment is used, the state where the cuticle C is partly peeled is maintained, and the base 20 is moved by the movable shaft in this state as shown in FIG. By inclining around a certain T axis, it becomes possible to irradiate the lower part of the cuticle C partially peeled with the electron beam E. As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to observe a portion that becomes a shadow with respect to the electron beam without changing the relative position between the probe 51 of the manipulator 50 and the cuticle C of the hair H. .

  As described above, according to the observation apparatus 10, the manipulator 50 is attached to the base via the connecting member 40, so that the sample base can be changed without changing the relative position between the manipulator 50 and the hair H as the sample. It can be moved freely, and various observations that were practically impossible with conventional observation apparatuses can be easily performed. In addition to this advantage, the observation apparatus 10 also has the following advantages. That is, in the observation apparatus shown in FIG. 10 described in the prior art section of the present specification, the manipulator is fixed to the sample stage. It is necessary to replace the sample by opening it to the atmospheric system and taking out the observation device. It takes a long time (for example, 2 hours) to return the sample chamber to the vacuum state due to such exchange work, and the work efficiency is significantly reduced. On the other hand, in the observation apparatus 10 of the present embodiment in which the manipulator is not fixed to the sample stage, only the sample exchange chamber that is provided separately from the sample chamber and has a volume smaller than that of the sample chamber when the sample is exchanged. Therefore, the return to the vacuum state is completed in a very short time (for example, 2 minutes). As described above, when the observation apparatus 10 is applied to an electron microscope, there is an advantage that the replacement of the sample can be completed in a short time.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated based on the preferable embodiment, this invention is not restrict | limited to the said embodiment. For example, in the embodiment, among the five movable axes of the observation apparatus 10, the Z axis and the T axis are assigned to the base 20, and the X axis, the Y axis, and the R axis are assigned to the sample base 30. The movement of the 20 movable axes is interlocked with the movement of the manipulator 50. Instead, the Z axis, T axis, and X axis or Y axis are assigned to the base 20, and the R axis is assigned to the sample stage 30. , Y axis or X axis may be assigned, and the operation of the movable axis of the base 20 may be interlocked with the operation of the manipulator 50. Alternatively, the Z axis, the T axis, the X axis, and the Y axis are assigned to the base 20, the R axis is assigned to the sample stage 30, and the operation of the movable axis of the base 20 is linked with the operation of the manipulator 50. Also good.

  In the embodiment, the observation apparatus 10 has five movable axes. Alternatively, the observation apparatus 10 may be an observation apparatus having two or more, four or less, or six or more movable axes. .

  Moreover, although the said embodiment is an example which applied the observation apparatus 10 to SEM, the application range of this invention is not restricted to SEM, For example, the scanning ion microscope (SIM) using a focused ion beam (FIB). In addition, the present invention can be similarly applied to an optical microscope.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the base and sample stand in one Embodiment of the microscope observation apparatus of this invention. FIGS. 2A and 2B are plan views showing the movable shaft of the sample stage in the microscope observation apparatus shown in FIG. FIGS. 2A and 2B are side views showing the movable shaft of the base in the microscope observation apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the micromanipulator is attached to the connecting member. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a microscope observation apparatus in which a connecting member having a manipulator attached and fixed to a gantry is attached to a base with screws. FIGS. 6A to 6C are schematic views showing the operation of the manipulator. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which hair cuticles are observed using the observation apparatus shown in FIG. FIGS. 8A and 8B are schematic views showing a state in which the cuticle of the hair is partly peeled and the lower part is observed using the observation apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional microscope observation apparatus. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional microscope observation apparatus. FIGS. 11A and 11B are schematic views showing a state in which the cuticle of hair is peeled using a manipulator.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Microscope observation apparatus 20 Base 30 Sample stage 31 XY stage 32 Rotating stage 40 Connecting member 41 Mount part 42 Standing part 43 Recumbent part 44 Attachment part 50 Manipulator

Claims (4)

A microscope observation apparatus comprising: a base having a movable axis; and a sample stage disposed on the base and having a movable axis different from the movable axis of the base,
It has five movable axes,
Among the five axes, the sample stage has three axes: an X axis, a Y axis orthogonal to the X axis, and a rotation axis in the XY plane;
The base has a Z axis orthogonal to the XY plane, and two axes of an inclination axis with respect to the XY plane,
A micromanipulator for manipulating the sample is attached to the base via a connecting member, and the operation of the base by the Z axis and the tilt axis is interlocked with the operation of the micromanipulator, and the X of the sample base An observation apparatus for a microscope in which the operations of the axis, the Y axis, and the rotation axis are not interlocked with the operation of the micromanipulator . It said micromanipulator, microscope observation apparatus removably attached claims 1, wherein in the base through the connecting member. The microscope observation apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the connection member includes a combination of a plurality of parts, and the two adjacent parts are connected to be orthogonal to each other. The observation apparatus for a microscope according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the observation apparatus is for an electron microscope.

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