Charged particle beam source and a method for assembling a charged particle beam source

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11189451-B2
Application number	US-202017110167-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 2, 2020
Priority date	Dec 13, 2017
Publication date	Nov 30, 2021
Grant date	Nov 30, 2021

Abstract

A charged particle beam source that may include an emitter that has a tip for emitting charged particles; a socket; electrodes; a filament that is connected to the electrodes and to the emitter; electrodes for providing electrical signals to the filament; a support element that is connected to the emitter; and a support structure that comprises one or more interfaces for contacting only a part of the support element while supporting the support element.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A charged particle beam source comprising:
a ceramic socket;
first and second electrodes coupled to the ceramic socket and spaced apart from each other;
an emitter brace integrally formed with the ceramic socket and disposed between the first and second electrodes, the emitter brace comprising a body extending away from the ceramic socket towards a distal end;
an emitter support element coupled to the distal end of the emitter brace;
an emitter coupled to the emitter support element and including a tip for emitting charged particles;
a filament coupled to the first and second electrodes and to the emitter, wherein the first and second electrodes are configured to provide electrical signals to the filament.

2. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 wherein the first and second electrodes extend through apertures formed in the ceramic socket.

3. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 wherein the filament comprises a first filament element that is connected to the first electrode and a second filament element that is connected to the second electrode.

4. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 wherein a longitudinal axis of the emitter brace is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the tip.

5. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 further comprising first and second supports disposed at the distal end of the emitter brace and spaced apart from each other defining a gap there between, and wherein the emitter support element is coupled to the emitter brace through the first and second supports.

6. The charged particle beam source according to claim 5 wherein the emitter support element spans the gap between the first and second supports.

7. The charged particle beam source according to claim 6 wherein the emitter support element is a beam that has a longitudinal axis that is orthogonal to an imaginary plane defined by the filament.

8. The charged particle beam source according to claim 5 wherein the first and second supports comprise one or more movable elements that are movably coupled to a body of the emitter brace.

9. The charged particle beam source according to claim 5 wherein the first and second supports comprise one or more movable spheres that are movably coupled to a body of the emitter brace.

10. The charged particle beam source according to claim 5 wherein the first and second supports comprise one or more thermal isolators.

11. The charged particle beam source according to claim 5 wherein first and second supports extend beyond an intermediate part of the emitter brace thereby defining a gap between the intermediate part and the emitter support element when the emitter support element is supported by the emitter brace.

12. The charged particle beam source according to claim 5 wherein the emitter support element is coated with diamond like carbon where the first and second supports are coupled to the emitter support.

13. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 wherein the emitter brace comprises a ceramic.

14. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 wherein a resonance frequency of the emitter exceeds ten thousand Hertz.

15. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 wherein the emitter support element is connected to only one point of the emitter brace.

16. The charged particle beam source according to claim 1 wherein the charged particle beam source is a cold field emission charged particle beam source.

17. A cold field emission charged particle beam source comprising:
a ceramic socket;
first and second electrodes coupled to the ceramic socket and spaced apart from each other;
an emitter brace integrally formed with the ceramic socket and disposed between the first and second electrodes, the emitter brace comprising a body extending away from the ceramic socket towards a distal end;
an emitter support element coupled to the distal end of the emitter brace;
an emitter coupled to the emitter support element and including a nanometric scale radius tip for emitting charged particles;
a filament coupled to the first and second electrodes and to the emitter, wherein the first and second electrodes are configured to provide electrical signals to the filament.

18. The cold field emission charged particle beam source set forth in claim 17 wherein:
the first and second electrodes extend through apertures formed in the ceramic socket;
the filament comprises a first filament element that is connected to the first electrode and a second filament element that is connected to the second electrode; and
a longitudinal axis of the emitter brace is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the nanometric scale radius tip.

19. The cold field emission charged particle beam source set forth in claim 18 further comprising first and second supports disposed at the distal end of the emitter brace and spaced apart from each other defining a gap there between, and wherein the emitter support element spans the gap and is coupled to the emitter brace through the first and second supports.

20. A cold field emission charged particle beam source comprising:
a ceramic socket;
first and second electrodes coupled to the ceramic socket and spaced apart from each other;
a ceramic brace integral with the ceramic socket and disposed between the first and second electrodes, the ceramic brace comprising a body having a longitudinal axis and extending away from the ceramic socket to a distal end at which the ceramic brace includes first and second supports spaced apart from each other defining a gap there between;
an emitter support element comprising a beam coupled to and extending between the first and second supports at the distal end of the ceramic brace over the gap;
an emitter coupled to the emitter support element, the emitter including a nanometric scale radius emitter tip having a longitudinal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the ceramic brace; and
a filament coupled between the first and second electrodes and the emitter, wherein the first and second electrodes are configured to provide electrical signals to the filament.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Asulin Itay
• Yuli Ofer
• Shavit Lavy
• Uziel Yoram
• Eytan Guy
• Schlimoff Natan
• Krivts (Krayvitz) Igor
• Levin Jacob
• Avneri Israel

Classifications

• H01J9/18

  Assembling together the component parts of electrode systems · CPC title

• H01J37/065 Primary

  Construction of guns or parts thereof (H01J37/067 - H01J37/077 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01J37/073 Primary

  Electron guns using field emission, photo emission, or secondary emission electron sources · CPC title

• H01J2237/03

  Mounting, supporting, spacing or insulating electrodes · CPC title

• H01J1/92 Primary

  Mountings for the electrode assembly as a whole · CPC title