Patent · US Expired

Method and device for aligning a charged particle beam column

US7271396B2 · kind B2 · utility

2Cited by
10References
59Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 4, 2002
Grant dateSep 18, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 4, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01J2237/221
  • WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The invention provides a method for automatically aligning a beam of charged particles with an aperture. Thereby, the beam is defelcted to two edges of the aperture. From the signals required to obtain an extinction, a correction deflection field is calculated. Furter, a method for automatically aligning a beam of charged particles with an optical axis is provided. Thereby a defocusing is introduced and a signal calculated based on an introduced image shift is applied to a deflection unit. Further, a method for correction of the astigmatism is provided. Thereby the sharpness is evaluated for a sequence of frames measured whilst varying the signals to a stigmator.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.