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:
Feb. 19, 2002
Filed:
May. 13, 1999
Yoshihiro Koyama, Chiba, JP;
Seiko Instruments Inc., , JP;
Abstract
A charged particle beam apparatus has a heater for heating an internal component to a sufficient temperature to prevent solidification of particles thereon and to thus improve the reliability of the apparatus. In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus is a focused ion beam apparatus having an ion source and a focusing optical system contained in a housing. A scanning electrode contained in the housing scans the focused ion beam across a desired region of a sample surface. The heater maintains the temperature of the focusing optical system at a sufficient temperature to prevent a gas contained in the housing from solidifying in the heated internal component. A secondary charged particle detector detects secondary charged particles generated in response to the ion beam irradiation and outputs a corresponding signal, and a display unit displays an image of the sample surface based on the output signal of the secondary charged particle detector. A gas injection gun blows a gas toward the sample surface. The gas may be an etch-assist gas which cooperates with the focused ion beam to etch the region of the sample surface irradiated by the focused ion beam, or a deposition-assist gas which cooperates with the focused ion beam to deposit a film on the region of the sample surface irradiated by the focused ion beam.