Methods and systems for raster scanning a surface of an object using a particle beam
AssigneeCarl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH
InventorsJosef Biberger, Ralph Pulwey
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of raster scanning a surface of an object using a particle beam comprises determining a basic set of raster points within a surface; determining a surface portion of the surface of the object, wherein the surface portion is to be raster scanned; ordering a set of raster points of the basic set located within the surface portion; and scanning of the surface portion by directing the particle beam onto the raster points of the ordered set in an order corresponding to an order of the raster points in the ordered set from the outside to the inside, i.e. starting from the boundary of the surface portion towards its center, or in the reverse order, i.e. from the inside to the outside.
Claims20
A method of raster scanning a surface of an object using a particle beam, the method comprising:
- determining a boundary of a two-dimensional surface portion of a surface of an object, wherein the entire two-dimensional surface portion is to be raster scanned by a particle beam;
- determining a set of raster points located within the two-dimensional surface portion;
- ordering the raster points of the set of raster points into an ordered set of raster points;
- and
- sequentially directing the particle beam to the raster points of the ordered set of raster points in an order corresponding to the ordering.
A particle beam system, comprising:
- a particle beam generator configured to generate a particle beam;
- a beam deflector configured to direct the particle beam to selectable locations on an object;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine a boundary of a two-dimensional surface portion of a surface of the object, wherein the entire two-dimensional surface portion is to be raster scanned by the particle beam;
- determine a set of raster points located within the two-dimensional surface portion;
- order the raster points of the set of raster points into an ordered set of raster points;
- and
- sequentially direct the particle beam to the raster points of the ordered set of raster points in an order corresponding to the ordering.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.