604results about "Magnetic discharge control" patented technology

One embodiment relates to an objective lens utilizing magnetic and electrostatic fields which is configured to focus a primary electron beam onto a surface of a target substrate. The objective lens includes a magnetic pole piece and an electrostatic deflector configured within the pole piece. An electrostatic lens field is determined by the pole piece and the electrostatic deflector, and the electrostatic lens field is configured by adjusting offset voltages applied to plates of the electrostatic deflector. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed.

A process for an intensity-modulated proton therapy of a predetermined volume within an object includes discretising the predetermined volume into a number of iso-energy layers each corresponding to a determined energy of the proton beam. A final target dose distribution is determined for each iso-energy layer. The final target dose distribution or at least a predetermined part of this final target dose distribution is applied by parallel beam scanning by controlling the respective beam sweepers, thereby scanning one iso-energy layer after the other using an intensity-modulated proton beam while scanning a predetermined iso-energy layer.

An electron-optical arrangement provides a primary beam path for a beam of primary electrons and a secondary beam path for secondary electrons. The electron-optical arrangement includes a magnet arrangement having first, second and third magnetic field regions. The first magnetic field region is traversed by the primary beam path and the secondary beam path. The second magnetic field region is arranged in the primary beam path upstream of the first magnetic field region and is not traversed by the secondary beam path. The first and second magnetic field regions deflect the primary beam path in substantially opposite directions. The third magnetic field region is arranged in the secondary beam path downstream of the first magnetic field region and is not traversed by the first beam path. The first and third magnetic field regions deflect the secondary beam path in a substantially same direction.

An electromagnet comprises a pair of magnetic pole 1a and 1b, a return yoke 3, exciting coils 4 and 5, etc. In an interior portion of a magnetic pole, plural spacers 2a-2g are provided putting side by side in a horizontal direction. Each of the spaces 2a-2g is an air layer and a longitudinal cross-section is a substantially rectangular shape and the space has a lengthily extending slit shape in a vertical direction against a paper face in FIG. 1. The plural spaces are mainly arranged toward a right side from a beam orbit center O and an interval formed between adjacent spaces is narrower toward the right side. The electromagnet having a simple magnetic pole structure and a wide effective magnetic field area in a case where a maximum magnetic field strength is increased can be secured.

Devices and methods are provided for generating laser-accelerated high energy polyenergetic positive ion beams that are spatially separated and modulated based on energy level. The spatially separated and modulated high energy polyenergetic positive ion beams are used for radiation therapy. In addition, methods are provided for treating patients in radiation treatment centers using therapeutically suitable high energy polyenergetic positive ion beams that are provided by spatially separating and modulating positive ion beams. The production of radioisotopes using spatially separated and modulated laser-accelerated high energy polyenergetic positive ion beams is also provided.

A method and apparatus for debris removal from a reflecting surface of an EUV collector in an EUV light source is disclosed which may comprise the reflecting surface comprises a first material and the debris comprises a second material and / or compounds of the second material, the system and method may comprise a controlled sputtering ion source which may comprise a gas comprising the atoms of the sputtering ion material; and a stimulating mechanism exciting the atoms of the sputtering ion material into an ionized state, the ionized state being selected to have a distribution around a selected energy peak that has a high probability of sputtering the second material and a very low probability of sputtering the first material. The stimulating mechanism may comprise an RF or microwave induction mechanism.

The invention relates to a cyclotron which can produce a beam of accelerated charged particles that are intended for the irradiation of at least one target (200). The inventive cyclotron consists of a magnetic circuit which essentially comprises: an electromagnet with at least two poles (1, 1′), namely an upper pole (1) and a lower pole (1′), which are disposed symmetrically in relation to a mid-plane (110) which is perpendicular to the central axis (100) of the cyclotron and which are separated by a gap (120) containing the circulating charged particles and return flux (2) in order to close the aforementioned magnetic circuit; and a pair of main induction coils (5, 5′) which are used to create an essentially-constant main induction field in the gap between poles 1 and 1′. The invention is characterised in that it comprises means of centring the above-mentioned beam, consisting of at least one pair of bucking coils (6, 7) which are supplied by an electrical source (8) and which can modulate the intensity of the main induction field produced by the main coils (5, 5′), in order to increase the intensity of the induction field in a first area of the cyclotron and to reduce the intensity of the induction field in a second area of the cyclotron, which is diametrically opposed to the central axis (100) of the cyclotron.

This invention relates generally to treatment of solid cancers. More particularly, the invention relates to a computer controlled patient positioning, immobilization, and repositioning method and apparatus used in conjunction with multi-field charged particle cancer therapy coordinated with patient respiration patterns and further in combination with charged particle beam injection, acceleration, extraction, and / or targeting methods and apparatus.

The invention relates to treatment of solid cancers. More particularly, the invention relates to a combined rotation / raster method, referred to as multi-field charged particle cancer therapy. The system uses a fixed orientation proton source relative to a rotating patient to yield tumor irradiation from multiple directions. The system combines layer-wise tumor irradiation from many directions with controlled energy proton irradiation to deliver peak proton beam energy within a selected tumor volume or irradiated slice. Optionally, the selected tumor volume for irradiation from a given angle is a distal portion of the tumor. In this manner ingress Bragg peak energy is circumferentially spread about the tumor minimizing damage to healthy tissue and peak proton energy is efficiently, accurately, and precisely delivered to the tumor.

The present invention is directed towards metallized carbon nanotubes, methods for making metallized carbon nanotubes using an electroless plating technique, methods for dispensing metallized carbon nanotubes onto a substrate, and methods for aligning magnetically-active metallized carbon nanotubes. The present invention is also directed towards cold cathode field emitting materials comprising metallized carbon nanotubes, and methods of using metallized carbon nanotubes as cold cathode field emitters.

A small-sized charged particle beam apparatus capable of maintaining high vacuum even during emission of an electron beam is provided. A nonevaporative getter pump is placed upstream of differential pumping of an electron optical system of the charged particle beam apparatus, and a minimum number of ion pumps are placed downstream, so that both the pumps are used in combination. Further, by mounting a detachable coil on an electron gun part, the inside of a column can be maintained under high vacuum with a degree of vacuum in the order of 10−8 Pa.

A system including co-axial focused ion beam and an electron beam allows for accurate processing with the FIB using images formed by the electron beam. In one embodiment, a deflector deflects the electron beam onto the axis of the ion beam and deflects secondary particles collected through the final lens toward a detector. In one embodiment, a positively biased final electrostatic lens focuses both beams using the same voltage to allow simultaneous or alternating FIB and SEM operation. In one embodiment, the landing energy of the electrons can be varied without changing the working distance.

An electron beam system or a method for manufacturing a device using the electron beam system in which an electron beam can be irradiated at a high current density and a ratio of transmittance of a secondary electron beam of an image projecting optical system can be improved and which can be compact in size. The surface of the sample S is divided into plural stripe regions which in turn are divided into rectangle-shaped main fields. The main field is further divided into plural square-shaped subfields. The irradiation with the electron beams and the formation of a two-dimensional image are repeated in a unit of the subfields. A magnetic gap formed by the inner and outer magnetic poles of the objective lens is formed on the side of the sample, and an outer side surface and an inner side surface of each of the inner magnetic pole and the outer magnetic pole, respectively, forming the magnetic gap have each part of a conical shape with a convex having an angle of 45° or greater with respect to the optical axis.

A sample is evaluated at a high throughput by reducing axial chromatic aberration and increasing the transmittance of secondary electrons. Electron beams emitted from an electron gun 1 are irradiated onto a sample 7 through a primary electro-optical system, and electrons consequently emitted from the sample are detected by a detector 12 through a secondary electro-optical system. A Wien filter 8 comprising a multi-pole lens for correcting axial chromatic aberration is disposed between a magnification lens 10 in the secondary electro-optical system and a beam separator 5 for separating a primary electron beam and a secondary electron beam, for correcting axial chromatic aberration caused by an objective lens 14 which comprises an electromagnetic lens having a magnetic gap defined on a sample side.

A scanning charged particle beam device configured to image a specimen is described. The scanning charged particle beam device includes a source of charged particles, a condenser lens for influencing the charged particles, an aperture plate having at least two aperture openings to generate at least two primary beamlets of charged particles, at least two deflectors, wherein the at least two deflectors are multi-pole deflectors, a multi-pole deflector with an order of poles of 8 or higher, an objective lens, wherein the objective lens is a retarding field compound lens, a beam separator configured to separate the at least two primary beamlets from at least two signal beamlets, a beam bender, or a deflector or a mirror configured to deflect the at least two signal beamlets, wherein the beam bender is a hemispherical beam bender or beam bender having at least two curved electrodes, and at least two detector elements.

A closed drift ion source which includes a channel having an open end, a closed end, and an input port for an ionizable gas. A first magnetic pole is disposed on the open end of the channel and extends therefrom in a first direction. A second magnetic pole disposed on the open end of the channel and extends therefrom in a second direction, where the first direction is opposite to the second direction. The distal ends of the first magnetic pole and the second magnetic pole define a gap comprising the opening in the first end. An anode is disposed within the channel. A primary magnetic field line is disposed between the first magnetic pole and the second magnetic pole, where that primary magnetic field line has a mirror field greater than 2.

A method of optimizing locations of correction elements of a charged particle beam system determines respective corrector element currents to achieve optimum correction as a function of individual corrector location. Substantially complete dynamic correction of FSD and SFD can be obtained consistent with efficiency of operation and minimization of deflection distortion. In particular, FSD and SFD corrections can be sufficiently separated for substantially complete correction of SFD and FSD simultaneously with two stigmators. Both of these types of correction can be provided in complex charged particle beam systems employing curvilinear axis (CVA) particle trajectories and or large area reduction projection optics (LARPO) which cause complex hybrid aberrations in order to achieve high throughput consistent with extremely high resolution supporting one-tenth micron minimum feature size lithography regimes and smaller.

A method and apparatus for debris removal from a reflecting surface of an EUV collector in an EUV light source is disclosed which may comprise the reflecting surface comprises a first material and the debris comprises a second material and / or compounds of the second material, the system and method may comprise a controlled sputtering ion source which may comprise a gas comprising the atoms of the sputtering ion material; and a stimulating mechanism exciting the atoms of the sputtering ion material into an ionized state, the ionized state being selected to have a distribution around a selected energy peak that has a high probability of sputtering the second material and a very low probability of sputtering the first material. The stimulating mechanism may comprise an RF or microwave induction mechanism.

A particle therapy gantry for delivering a particle beam to a patient includes a beam tube having a curvature defining a particle beam path and a plurality of fixed field magnets sequentially arranged along the beam tube for guiding the particle beam along the particle path. In a method for delivering a particle beam to a patient through a gantry, a particle beam is guided by a plurality of fixed field magnets sequentially arranged along a beam tube of the gantry and the beam is alternately focused and defocused with alternately arranged combined function focusing and defocusing fixed field magnets.

A particle-optical apparatus comprising a sample holder for receiving a sample, a particle source embodied to produce a primary beam of first electrically charged particles along an optical axis for the purpose of irradiating the sample, first detector embodied to detect second electrically charged particles that emanate from the sample as a result of the irradiation thereof, a detection space that at the least is formed by the sample holder and the first detector, and an immersion lens embodied to produce a magnetic field for the purpose of focusing the primary beam in the vicinity of the sample holder. The first detector are embodied to produce an electric field in the detection space, and the detection space is embodied to comprise a gas.

Particle radiation therapy equipment arranged to apply a charged particle beam in a predetermined direction to a region of application within an imaging volume, comprising a charged particle beam source arranged to direct a charged particle beam in the predetermined direction, further comprising magnetic field generation means for generating a magnetic field in the region of application at the same time that the charged particle beam is applied, wherein the magnetic field generation means is arranged to provide access to the region of application for the charged particle beam, and to provide a homogeneous magnetic field in the region of application of the charged particle beam, said magnetic field being directed substantially in the predetermined direction.

An extreme ultra violet light source apparatus having relatively high output for exposure, in which debris are suppressed to be produced as much as possible in stead of disposing debris that has been once produced. The extreme ultra violet light source apparatus includes: a chamber in which extreme ultra violet light is generated; a target supply unit for supplying solid tin or lithium as a target to a predetermined position within the chamber; a CO2 laser for applying a laser beam based on pulse operation to the target supplied by the target supply unit so as to generate plasma; and a collector mirror having a multilayer film on a reflecting surface thereof, for collecting the extreme ultra violet light radiated from the plasma to output the extreme ultra violet light.