Cooling means for components in a vacuum chamber

A cooling system for a heat generating component situated in a vacuum chamber for function testing with focused electron or ion beams, comprising:

• at an upper side of the vacuum chamber an opening being provided;
• an elongated low thermal resistance heat sink having a lower end designed as a mounting surface to which the component is mounted in thermal low resistance contact, and an upper end projecting up through the opening above the upper side of the vacuum chamber;
• the upper end of the heat sink being connected to a relatively large area heat sink having cooling ribs and positioned above the upper side of the vacuum chamber;
• sealing means connecting the relatively large area heat sink to the vacuum chamber upper side so that the opening of the vacuum chamber is effectively sealed;
• means being provided for blowing temperature-controlled cooling air at the cooling ribs for elimination of heat;
• and
• a temperature sensor means, which is guided through a bore in the heat sink and which is brought up to a point less than 1 mm from a surface of the component to be cooled, being provided for deriving an actual value for temperature control for said component.