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:
Dec. 27, 2005
Filed:
Mar. 16, 2004
Diane K. Stewart, Ipswich, MA (US);
W. Ralph Knowles, Newbury, MA (US);
Brian T. Kimball, Georgetown, MA (US);
Diane K. Stewart, Ipswich, MA (US);
W. Ralph Knowles, Newbury, MA (US);
Brian T. Kimball, Georgetown, MA (US);
FEI Company, Hillsboro, OR (US);
Abstract
A charged particle beam system uses an ion generator for charge neutralization. In some embodiments, the ion generator is configured to maintain an adequate gas pressure at the ion generator to generate ions, but a reduced pressure in the remainder of the vacuum chamber, so that another column can operate in the chamber either simultaneously or after an evacuation process that is much shorter than a process that would be required to evacuate the chamber from the full pressure required at the ion generator. The invention is particularly useful for repair of photolithography masks in a dual beam system.