Etec Systems, Inc.

T H P Chang

Kim Yang Lee

Ho-Seob Kim

A method and an accompanied apparatus for aligning an electron emitter with an extractor hole of a microcolumn. Four V-grooves, defined together with the window for forming the membrane and having bottoms situated on two axis are microfabricated on a chip. The axis intersect at a right angle and defines a center point for the extractor hole. The V-grooves are then used as references to align the electron emitter with the extractor hole, one axis at a time. The emitter is precisely aligned to the extractor hole because the extractor hole was formed with reference to the V-grooves. The thickness of the chip is used as the spacing reference between the emitter and the extractor.

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Foster City, CA, United States of America

T H P Chang