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:
Sep. 02, 2008
Filed:
Apr. 30, 2007
Gerbert Jeroen Van DE Water, Eindhoven, NL;
Petrus Martinus Hoeks, Eindhoven, NL;
Gerbert Jeroen van de Water, Eindhoven, NL;
Petrus Martinus Hoeks, Eindhoven, NL;
Fei Company, Hillsboro, OR (US);
Abstract
The invention relates to a thermal switch for particle-optical apparatus. In, for example, a cryo-TEM (transmission electron microscope), a samplethat is placed at an extremityof a sample holdercan be maintained at, for example, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. There is a need to be able to inspect a sample at, for example, room temperature in a simple manner, without heating the microscope as a whole from the cryogenic temperature to room temperature. By using the thermal switch, this becomes possible. To this end, the thermal switch changes the thermal path between a cold sourcein the apparatus and the extremityof the sample holder, whereby, in one position, position, a connection is made from the extremityto the cold source, and, in the other position, position, a connection is made to a portionof the apparatus that is maintained at room temperature.