Ion milling apparatus
AssigneeHitachi High-Tech Corporation
InventorsShota Aida, Hisayuki Takasu, Kento Horinouchi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a state in which an ion beam from an ion source 101 is shielded by a shutter 102, an ion milling apparatus applies a discharge voltage Vd between an anode 203 and cathodes 201 and 202 and an acceleration voltage Va between the anode and an acceleration electrode 205 with respect to the ion source, and retracts the shutter by a shutter drive source 103 to a position where the ion beam is not shielded after any one of a discharge current flowing between the anode and the cathodes due to discharge and an ion beam current flowing caused by irradiation on the shutter the ion beam falls below a predetermined reference value.
Claims9
An ion milling apparatus comprising:
- a sample chamber;
- a sample stage which is disposed in the sample chamber and on which a sample is to be placed;
- an ion source configured to emit, as a non-focused ion beam toward the sample, an ion generated by an electron generated by discharge between an anode and a cathode by accelerating the ion by an acceleration electrode;
- a conductive shutter disposed between the ion source and the sample stage and configured to shield the ion beam;
- a shutter drive source configured to drive the shutter;
- and
- a control unit configured to, in a state in which the ion beam is shielded by the shutter, apply a discharge voltage between the anode and the cathode and an acceleration voltage between the anode and the acceleration electrode, and to retract the shutter by the shutter drive source to a position where the ion beam is not shielded after any one of a discharge current flowing between the anode and the cathode due to the discharge and an ion beam current flowing caused by irradiation on the shutter with the ion beam decreases to fall below a predetermined reference value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.