Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.

Gary L Viviani

William Gray Callahan

Nick A Parisi

A system and method to expose a material to an ion beam during a continuous material production process may include a vacuum fixture to form the ion beam and a slit in the fixture to allow at least a portion of the ion beam to exit the fixture through the slit. The material can be placed in contact with an exterior area of the fixture so as to cover the slit. With the material in place, the vacuum within the fixture may be maintained and the ion beam formed. The material over the slit can be exposed to the ion beam. As the continuous process moves material past the slit, the vacuum within the vacuum fixture may help to maintain the material in contact with the fixture.

Ion beam for enhancing optical properties of materials

Methods and apparatus are provided for ion implantation of a workpiece. The apparatus includes an ion beam generator for generating an ion beam, a deflection device for deflecting the ion beam to produce a deflected ion beam, and a drive device for rotating the deflection device about an axis of rotation to thereby cause the deflected ion beam to rotate about the axis of rotation and to produce a rotating ion beam. The apparatus may include a controller for controlling the deflection and/or the rotation of the ion beam to produce a desired distribution of the ion beam over the surface of the workpiece. The apparatus may further include an angle compensation device for causing the rotating ion beam to have a substantially constant angle of incidence on the workpiece.

Rotating beam ion implanter

A method and apparatus for controlling complex systems includes hierarchically coupled subsystems representing operative functions of the system. The hierarchically coupled subsystems are coupled to collect command data from a user and signal data from the system. Each subsystem may include one or more state machines and one or more digital signal processing and conditioning unit (DSPCU) objects. The DSCPU objects accept process commands and convert control system signals into states for further processing by the state machines. Associated with the DSPCUs of each subsystem is a data flow diagram for dictating an order of flow of commands and signals at the DSPCUs. A method of controlling the system represented by the hierarchically coupled subsystems schedules the execution of the subsystems according to an execution protocol. According to the execution protocol, for each cycle of execution of the system, the hierarchically coupled subsystems are first analyzed in ascending order of the hierarchy, with DSPCU objects being analyzed in data flow order before state machine objects, and then in descending order of the hierarchy, with state machine objects being analyzed before DSPCU objects. During the ascending execution of the hierarchy, signal data received from only those objects that are relatively lower in the hierarchy are used to update the state of any given object. During the descending execution of the hierarchy, command data received from only those objects that are relatively higher in the hierarchy are considered when updating the state of any given object.

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Boxford, MA, United States of America

Gary L Viviani