Charged particle beam system
US6979822B1 · kind B1 · utility
28Cited by
13References
26Claims
0Family size
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 16, 2004 |
| Grant date | Dec 27, 2005 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 16, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01J2237/31798
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A charged particle beam system uses an ion generator for charge neutralization. In some embodiments, the ion generator is configured to maintain an adequate gas pressure at the ion generator to generate ions, but a reduced pressure in the remainder of the vacuum chamber, so that another column can operate in the chamber either simultaneously or after an evacuation process that is much shorter than a process that would be required to evacuate the chamber from the full pressure required at the ion generator. The invention is particularly useful for repair of photolithography masks in a dual beam system.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.