Charged particle beam apparatus and control method thereof
AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation
InventorsTakeshi Sunaoshi, Yoshihisa Orai, Haruhiko Hatano, Takashi Mizuo
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Abstract
The invention is directed to a charged particle beam apparatus that enables temperature maintenance in a cooling unit provided inside a vacuum application apparatus using a refrigerant. The charged particle beam apparatus includes a cooling tank that contains a refrigerant for cooling a cooling unit, a cooling pipe that supplies the refrigerant from the cooling tank to the cooling unit, and a unit that leads the refrigerant to liquefy when the refrigerant is biased to a solid.
Claims13
A charged particle beam apparatus for cooling a cooling unit inside a vacuum application apparatus, comprising:
- a cooling tank that contains a refrigerant for cooling the cooling unit;
- a cooling pipe that supplies the refrigerant from the cooling tank to the cooling unit;
- a unit, comprising:
- a pump configured to exhaust the interior of the cooling tank to depressurize the interior of the cooling tank;
- a valve configured to inject gas into the interior of the cooling tank to pressurize the interior of the cooling tank;
- and
- a vacuum gauge configured to measure a degree of vacuum of the interior of the cooling tank;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- control the refrigerant to liquefy when the refrigerant is biased to a solid;
- control the pump and the valve to maintain the refrigerant in a solid-liquid coexisting state by pressurizing and depressurizing an interior of the cooling tank based on the degree of vacuum measured by the vacuum gauge;
- and
- control operation of at least one of the pump and the valve when the degree of vacuum measured by the vacuum gauge is a predetermined degree of vacuum.
A control method of a charged particle beam apparatus for cooling a cooling unit inside a vacuum application apparatus, the control method comprising steps of:
- supplying a refrigerant from a cooling tank to the cooling unit, the cooling tank containing the refrigerant for cooling the cooling unit;
- and
- controlling the refrigerant to liquefy when the refrigerant is biased to a solid;
- maintaining the refrigerant in a solid-liquid coexisting state by controlling a valve to inject gas into the interior of the cooling tank to pressurize the interior of the cooling tank and controlling a pump to exhaust the interior of the cooling tank to depressurize the interior of the cooling tank based on a measured degree of vacuum;
- and
- controlling operation of at least one of the pump and the valve when the measured degree of vacuum is a predetermined degree of vacuum.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.