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US 10,651,005 B2Granted
Innovative source assembly for ion beam production
AssigneeFEI Company
InventorsLeon van Kouwen, Gerard Nicolaas Anne van Veen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A source assembly for ion beam production is disclosed herein. An example source assembly may include a pair of plates separated by a distance, with each plate having an aperture, and the respective apertures aligned, and an ionization space defined at least by the distance and the respective apertures, where a ratio of the distance to an ionic mean free path of a gas in the ionization space is greater than one.
Claims16
An apparatus comprising:
- a pair of plates separated by a distance, each plate having an aperture, the respective apertures aligned;
- and
- an ionization space defined by the distance and the respective apertures,
- wherein a ratio of the distance to an ionic mean free path of a gas in the ionization space is greater than on;
- and the ratio of the distance to the ionic mean free path of the gas in the ionization space is adjusted by at least one of the following parameters:
- a pressure of the gas in the ionization space and a potential difference between the pair of plates.
3 more elements
An apparatus comprising;
- a carrier device;
- a plurality of nano-aperture ionization sources (NAIS) disposed on the carrier device, wherein each NAIS comprises:
- a pair of plates separated by a distance, each plate having an aperture, the respective apertures aligned;
- and
- an ionization space defined by the distance and the respective apertures,
- wherein a ratio of the distance to an ionic mean free path of a gas in the ionization space is greater than one;
- a selecting device coupled to provide one of the plurality of NAISs;
- and
- a controller coupled to adjust at least one of the following parameters:
- a gas pressure in said ionization space of at least one NAIS of the plurality of NAISs;
- and
- an electrical potential applied between said plates of at least one NAIS of the plurality of NAISs.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.