Ion accelerator for use in ion implanter

An ion accelerator for accelerating heavy ions used in a semiconductor ion beam implanter, comprising:

• a neutral ion beam injector assembly for generating a neutral ion beam of fast neutral atoms;
• a high voltage terminal containing:
• a high voltage neutral beam tube which receives said neutral ion beam from said injector assembly,
• a stripper canal for receiving said neutral ion beam from said neutral beam tube and converting portions of said neutral ion beam to beams of positive ions,
• a sector analyzing magnet directly connected to said stripper canal for selecting a beam of a single charge state from said beams of said positive ions emerging from said stripper canal, and
• a high voltage acceleration tube directly connected to said sector analyzing magnet for accelerating said single charge state beam to ground potential;
• an electrical insulator coupled to a ground end of said acceleration tube for insulating said acceleration tube from ground;
• a negative high voltage power supply electrically connected to said acceleration tube;
• and
• adrift tube coupled to said acceleration tube for decelerating said beam emerging from said accelerator tube by applying a negative biasing voltage.

A method of accelerating ions, comprising:

• generating a neutral ion beam;
• converting portions of said neutral ion beam to beams of positive ions within a high voltage terminal;
• selecting a beam of a single charge state from said beams of positive ions by a charge state selector contained within said high voltage terminal;
• and
• accelerating said single charge state beam to ground potential by a high voltage acceleration tube directly connected to said charge state selector and contained within said high voltage terminal.