The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 07, 2020
Filed:
Jun. 27, 2017
Cameca Instruments Inc., Fitchburg, WI (US);
Thomas F. Kelly, Madison, WI (US);
Mark Ronald Levesque, Fitchburg, WI (US);
Cameca Instruments, Inc., Madison, WI (US);
Abstract
In an atom probe having a vacuum chamber containing a specimen mount and a detector for receiving ions emitted from the specimen, a high vacuum subchamber is provided about the specimen mount, with an aperture in the subchamber allowing passage of emitted ions to the detector. The high vacuum subchamber may be pumped to higher vacuum (lower pressure) than the vacuum chamber, and so long as the pressure in the vacuum chamber is below about 10Pa, very little gas diffusion takes place through the aperture, allowing higher vacuum to be maintained in the subchamber despite the aperture opening to the chamber. The higher vacuum in the subchamber about the specimen assists in reducing noise in atom probe image data. The aperture may conveniently be provided by the aperture in a counter electrode, such as a local electrode, as commonly used in atom probes.