Optimal electron beam characteristics by lenses analysis using scanning electron microscopy

This paper presents a design method for optimizing the focused beam characteristics, which are mainly determined by the condenser lenses in a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) design. Sharply reducing the probe diameter of electron beams by focusing the condenser lens (i.e., the rate of condensation) is important because a small probe diameter results in high-performance demagnification. This study explored design parameters that contribute to increasing the SEM resolution efficiently using lens analysis and the ray tracing method. A sensitivity analysis was conducted based on those results to compare the effects of these parameters on beam focusing. The results of this analysis on the design parameters for the beam characteristics can be employed as basic key information for designing a column in SEM.