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:
Aug. 15, 2006
Filed:
Mar. 08, 2004
Albert Visscher, Veldhoven, NL;
Albert Visscher, Veldhoven, NL;
FEI Company, Hillsboro, OR (US);
Abstract
The invention provides a particle-optical device for irradiating an object with a beam of particles. The device comprises a housing in which are located positioning meansfor positioning the object within the housing. The positioning means comprise a reference bodysupported against a supporting portion of the housing and a kinematic system—which can be manipulated—with an object carrierfor manipulating the object held in the object carrier in at least one degree of freedom with respect to the reference body, the device further comprising control means and at least one combinationof a piezo-electric position actuatorand a piezo-electric force sensor, which actuator and sensor are positioned in series, whereby the control means—in dependence upon at least one input signal from at least one sensor—generates a control signal for at least that actuator associated with said sensor, characterized in that the series-positioned actuators and sensors of said at least one combination are positioned between the housing and the reference body, the support of the reference body against the supporting portion of the housing occurring via said at least one combination.