ELECTROSTATIC PARTICLE BEAM DEFLECTOR
First Claim
1. An electrostatic deflector for a particle beam apparatus, the electrostatic deflector comprising:
- (a) first and second deflector plates that face one another across a particle beam gap, the deflector plates being electrostatically chargeable;
(b) a first voltage driver comprising a first DAC to convert a first digital code to a first analog voltage signal, and a first amplifier to amplify the first output analog voltage signal to generate a first voltage to be applied to the first deflector plate;
(c) a second voltage driver comprising a second DAC to convert a second digital code to a second analog voltage signal, and a second amplifier to amplify the second analog voltage signal to generate a second voltage to be applied to the second deflector plate, the second voltage being substantially complementary to the first voltage to maintain a selected differential voltage between the first and second deflector plates; and
(d) digital electronics to receive an input digital code that expresses the first and second voltages to be applied to the first and second deflector plates, and substitute the input digital code with an output digital code such that;
(i) when the input digital code is determined to provide a linear output response voltage from the first or second DAC, the output digital code is maintained the same as the input digital code; and
(ii) when the input digital code is determined to provide a non-linear output response voltage from the first or second DAC, the output digital code is substituted with a different digital code that provides a linear response from the first or second DAC while providing the same differential voltage between the first and second deflector plates.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electrostatic deflector for a particle beam apparatus comprises opposing deflector plates that face one another across a particle beam gap and are electrostatically chargeable. Each deflector plate comprises its own voltage driver, which has a DAC and amplifier. Digital electronics receives an input digital code that expresses the complementary voltages to be applied to opposing deflector plates. When the input digital code is determined to provide a non-linear output response voltage from a DAC, the digital electronics provides an output digital code with a different digital code that provides a linear response from the DAC while providing the same differential voltage between the first and second deflector plates.
23 Citations
24 Claims
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1. An electrostatic deflector for a particle beam apparatus, the electrostatic deflector comprising:
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(a) first and second deflector plates that face one another across a particle beam gap, the deflector plates being electrostatically chargeable;
(b) a first voltage driver comprising a first DAC to convert a first digital code to a first analog voltage signal, and a first amplifier to amplify the first output analog voltage signal to generate a first voltage to be applied to the first deflector plate;
(c) a second voltage driver comprising a second DAC to convert a second digital code to a second analog voltage signal, and a second amplifier to amplify the second analog voltage signal to generate a second voltage to be applied to the second deflector plate, the second voltage being substantially complementary to the first voltage to maintain a selected differential voltage between the first and second deflector plates; and
(d) digital electronics to receive an input digital code that expresses the first and second voltages to be applied to the first and second deflector plates, and substitute the input digital code with an output digital code such that;
(i) when the input digital code is determined to provide a linear output response voltage from the first or second DAC, the output digital code is maintained the same as the input digital code; and
(ii) when the input digital code is determined to provide a non-linear output response voltage from the first or second DAC, the output digital code is substituted with a different digital code that provides a linear response from the first or second DAC while providing the same differential voltage between the first and second deflector plates. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11)
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8. An electrostatic deflector for a particle beam apparatus, the electrostatic deflector comprising:
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(a) first and second deflector plates that face one another across a particle beam gap, the deflector plates being electrostatically chargeable;
(b) a first voltage driver to provide a first voltage to the first deflector plate, the first voltage driver comprising a first DAC to convert a first digital code to a first analog voltage signal which is passed to a first amplifier to generate a first voltage to be applied to the first deflector plate; and
(c) a second voltage driver to provide a second voltage to the second plate that is complementary to the first voltage, the second voltage driver comprising a second DAC to convert a second digital code to a second analog voltage signal which is passed to a second amplifier to generate a second voltage to be applied to the second deflector plate; and
(d) digital electronics to receive an input digital code that expresses the first and second voltages to be applied to the first and second deflector plates, and when the input digital code is determined to provide a non-linear output response voltage from the first or second DAC, substitute the input digital code with an output digital code that provides a linear response from the first or second DAC while providing the same differential voltage between the first and second deflector plates.
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9. An electrostatic deflector for a particle beam apparatus, the electrostatic deflector comprising:
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(a) first and second deflector plates that face one another across a particle beam gap, the deflector plates being electrostatically chargeable;
(b) a first voltage driver comprising a first DAC capable of converting a first digital code to a first analog voltage signal which is passed to a first amplifier to generate a first voltage to be applied to the first deflector plate; and
(c) a second voltage driver comprising a second DAC to convert a second digital code to a second analog voltage signal which is passed to a second amplifier to generate a second voltage to be applied to the second deflector plate, the second voltage being complementary to the first voltage; and
(d) digital electronics to (i) receive an input digital code that expresses the first and second voltages to be applied to the first and second deflector plates, (ii) determine if the input digital code is listed in a lookup table and associated with a substitute input digital code which bypasses any non-linear output response voltage of the first or second DAC, (iii) generate an output digital code which is either the input digital code or the substitute digital code, (iv) look up a translation table that associates each output digital code with a first bit code for the first DAC and a second bit code for the second DAC, and (v) pass the first bit code to the first DAC and the second bit code to the second DAC.
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12. A cascaded electrostatic deflector for a particle beam apparatus, the cascaded electrostatic deflector comprising:
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(a) an upper deflector comprising;
(i) a pair of opposing upper deflector plates that are electrostatically chargeable and face one another across a particle beam gap;
(ii) a first upper voltage driver comprising a first DAC to convert a first digital code to a first analog voltage signal, and a first amplifier to amplify the first output analog voltage signal to generate a first voltage to be applied to the one of the deflector plates; and
(iii) a second upper voltage driver comprising a second DAC to convert a second digital code to a second analog voltage signal, and a second amplifier to amplify the second analog voltage signal to generate a second voltage to be applied to the other deflector plate, the second voltage being substantially complementary to the first voltage to maintain a selected differential voltage between the deflector plates;
(b) a lower deflector comprising;
(i) a pair of opposing lower deflector plates that are electrostatically chargeable and face one another across a particle beam gap;
(ii) a first lower voltage driver comprising a first DAC to convert a first digital code to a first analog voltage signal, and a first amplifier to amplify the first output analog voltage signal to generate a first voltage to be applied to a lower deflector plate; and
(iii) a second lower voltage driver comprising a second DAC to convert a second digital code to a second analog voltage signal, and a second amplifier to amplify the second analog voltage signal to generate a second voltage to be applied to the other lower deflector plate, the second voltage being substantially complementary to the first voltage to maintain a selected differential voltage between the opposing deflector plates; and
(c) digital electronics to receive an input digital code that expresses the voltages to be applied to each upper and lower deflector plate, and substitute the input digital code with an output digital code such that;
(i) when the input digital code is determined to provide a linear output response voltage from a DAC, the output digital code is maintained the same as the input digital code; and
(ii) when the input digital code is determined to provide a non-linear output response voltage from the DAC, the output digital code is substituted with a different digital code that provides a linear response from the DAC while providing the same differential voltage between a pair of opposing upper or lower deflector plates. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A multifunction deflector system comprising a plurality of sets of cascaded deflectors, the multifunction deflector system comprising:
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(a) a first cascaded deflector set comprising first and second deflectors that are stacked one below the other, the first and second deflectors comprising pairs of opposing deflector plates that are each powered by a separate voltage driver comprising a DAC;
(b) a second cascaded deflector set comprising third and fourth deflectors that are stacked one below the other;
the third and fourth deflectors comprising pairs of opposing deflector plates that are each powered by a separate voltage driver comprising a DAC; and
(c) digital electronics to receive an input digital code that expresses the voltages to be applied to each of the deflector plates, and substitute the input digital code with an output digital code such that;
(i) when the input digital code is determined to provide a linear output response voltage from a DAC of a voltage driver, the output digital code is maintained the same as the input digital code, and (ii) when the Input digital code is determined to provide a non-linear output response voltage from the upper or lower DAC, the output digital code is substituted with a different digital code that provides a linear response from a DAC of the voltage driver while providing the same differential voltage between a pair of opposing deflector plates. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification