Real-time scanning charged-particle microscope image composition with correction of drift

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Microscopy Technology

Background:

• Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is crucial for high-resolution imaging.
• Drift distortion in SEM images causes blur and deformation, hindering metrology.
• Conventional slow and fast scan methods are susceptible to significant drift corruption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel SEM image composition technique.
• To significantly reduce drift-related image corruptions in SEM.
• To enable high-accuracy metrology applications requiring sub-nanometer precision.

Main Methods:

• Acquiring a large number of quick frames.
• Properly aligning these frames.
• Composing aligned frames into a single, corrected image.

Main Results:

• Minimized blur and deformation in the final composite image.
• Reduced noise compared to individual frames.
• Obtained data on sample position changes over time.

Conclusions:

• The new technique effectively corrects SEM image drift.
• The method enhances image quality for critical metrology tasks.
• It offers a tool for investigating instrument drift properties without extra equipment.