A physical analysis method, a sample for physical analysis and a preparing method thereof are provided. The preparing method of the sample for physical analysis includes: providing a sample to be inspected; and forming a contrast enhancement layer on a surface of the sample to be inspected. The contrast enhancement layer includes a plurality of first material layers and a plurality of second material layers stacked upon one another. The first material layer and the second material layer are made of different materials. Each one of the first and second material layers has a thickness that does not exceed 0.1 nm. In an image captured by an electron microscope, a difference between an average grayscale value of a surface layer image of the sample to be inspected and an average grayscale value of an image of the contrast enhancement layer is at least 50.

A vapor deposition system fixture comprises an arm, a rake, a crown gear bearing assembly, a workpiece holder, a thermocouple, and a contact ring assembly. The crown gear bearing assembly is attached to and rotatably engaged with the rake and includes stationary portion and rotating portions. The workpiece holder is configured to rotate with the rotating portion. The thermocouple is configured to rotate with the workpiece holder. The contact ring assembly comprises a housing, a cover, first and second rotating contact rings, and first and second stationary contact rings. The housing is attached to at least one of the arm and the rake. The first and second rotating contact rings are electrically connected to the thermocouple. The first and second stationary contact rings surround the rotating ring. The first and second stationary contact rings are configured to receive an electrical signal from the first and second rotating contact rings.

The present application relates to a scanning probe microscope comprising a probe arrangement for analyzing at least one defect of a photolithographic mask or of a wafer, wherein the scanning probe microscope comprises: (a) at least one first probe embodied to analyze the at least one defect; (b) means for producing at least one mark, by use of which the position of the at least one defect is indicated on the mask or on the wafer; and (c) wherein the mark is embodied in such a way that it may be detected by a scanning particle beam microscope.

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods of additive manufacturing that reduce or eliminates defects in the bulk deposition material microstructure resulting from the additive manufacturing process. An additive manufacturing system comprises evaporating a deposition material to form an evaporated deposition material and ionizing the evaporated deposition material to form an ionized deposition material flux. After forming the ionized deposition material flux, the ionized deposition material flux is directed through an aperture, accelerated to a controlled kinetic energy level and deposited onto a surface of a substrate. The aperture mechanism may comprise a physical, electrical, or magnetic aperture mechanism. Evaporation of the deposition material may be performed with an evaporation mechanism comprised of resistive heating, inductive heating, thermal radiation, electron heating, and electrical arc source heating.

A High Energy Beam Processing (HEBP) system provides feedback signal monitoring and feedback control for the improvement of process repeatability and three-dimensional (3D) printed part quality. Electrons deflected from a substrate in the processing area impinge on a surface of a sensor. The electrons result from the deflection of an electron beam from the substrate. Either one or both of an initial profile of an electron beam and an initial location of the electron beam relative to the substrate are determined based on a feedback electron signal corresponding to the impingement of the electrons on the surface of the sensor. With an appropriate profile and location of the electron beam, the build structure is fabricated on the substrate.

In accordance with various embodiments, a coating arrangement may comprise: an electron beam gun for providing an electron beam; a beam trap for trapping the electron beam; a control device for driving the electron beam gun and/or the beam trap, wherein the control device is configured to switch over the driving between a plurality of configurations, of which: in a first configuration, the electron beam is directed onto the beam trap; and in a second configuration, the electron beam is directed past the beam trap.

An image forming device is provided that is capable of forming a proper integrated signal even when an image or a signal waveform is acquired from a pattern having the possibility of preventing proper matching, such as a repetition pattern, a shrinking pattern, and the like. In particular, the image forming device forms an integrated image by integrating a plurality of image signals and is provided with: a matching processing section that performs a matching process between the plurality of image signals; an image integration section that integrates the plurality of image signals for which positioning has been performed by the matching processing section; and a periodicity determination section that determines a periodicity of a pattern contained in the image signals. The matching processing section varies a size of an image signal area for the matching in accordance with a determination by the periodicity determination section.

Disclosed are embodiments of an ion beam sample preparation and coating apparatus and methods. A sample may be prepared in one or more ion beams and then a coating may be sputtered onto the prepared sample within the same apparatus. A vacuum transfer device may be used with the apparatus in order to transfer a sample into and out of the apparatus while in a controlled environment. Various methods to improve preparation and coating uniformity are disclosed including: rotating the sample retention stage; modulating the sample retention stage; variable tilt ion beam irradiating means, more than one ion beam irradiating means, coating thickness monitoring, selective shielding of the sample, and modulating the coating donor holder.

A device (1) for coating a substrate (4) with nanometric sized particles, wherein the device (1) comprises: a plurality of means (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d) called production means, each able to product a jet (3) of nanometric sized particles, each of said production means having a longitudinal axis, the production means being arranged so that the various longitudinal axes are parallel and oriented in a first direction (X) defining the direction of propagation of the jet and in the form of at least two columns (9, 10) offset from each other in a second direction (Y) orthogonal to the first direction (X), where the first (9) and the second column (10) each comprise at least one production means, said at least one production means (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d) of the first column (9) also being offset relative to said at least one production means (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d) of the second column (10) in a third direction (Z) that is both orthogonal to the first direction (X) and to the second direction (Y).

An aspect of the invention provides an ion beam sputtering apparatus comprising an ion source configured to generate a hollow ion beam along a beam axis that is located in a hollow part of the beam; and a sputtering target having a target body that defines at least one target surface, the target body comprising sputterable particles, the target body being located relative to the ion source so that the ion beam hits the at least one target surface to sputter particles from the target body towards a surface of an object to be modified. The target body is shaped so that the particles sputtered towards a surface to be modified are generally sputtered from the sputtering target in radially extending sputter directions relative to the beam axis, the sputter directions being one of (i) directions extending towards the beam axis and (ii) directions extending away from the beam axis.