An apparatus provided with a wafer processing chamber that houses a wafer supporting mechanism supporting a wafer and is used to irradiate the wafer supported by the wafer supporting mechanism with an ion beam and a transport mechanism housing chamber that houses a transport mechanism provided underneath the wafer processing chamber and used for moving the wafer supporting mechanism in a substantially horizontal direction, wherein an aperture used for moving the wafer supporting mechanism along with a coupling member coupling the wafer supporting mechanism to the transport mechanism is formed in the direction of movement of the transport mechanism in a partition wall separating the wafer processing chamber from the transport mechanism housing chamber.

A gas field ionization source in which an ion beam current is stable for a long time is achieved in an ion beam apparatus equipped with a field ionization source that supplies gas to a chamber, ionizes the gas, and applies the ion beam to a sample. The ion beam apparatus includes an emitter electrode having a needle-like extremity; a chamber inside which the emitter electrode is installed; a gas supply unit that supplies the gas to the chamber; a cooling unit that is connected to the chamber and cools the emitter electrode; a discharge type exhaust unit that exhausts gas inside the chamber; and a trap type exhaust unit that exhausts gas inside the chamber. The exhaust conductance of the discharge type exhaust unit is larger than the total exhaust conductance of the trap type exhaust unit.

Provided is an electron microscope with which a sample can be observed stably and with high accuracy. The electron microscope comprises: a sample stage; an electron optical system that scans an electron beam over a sample; a vacuum system that maintains the sample stage and the electron optical system in a vacuum; a secondary electron detector that detects secondary electrons emitted from the sample; transmitted electron detectors that detect transmitted electrons that have transmitted through the sample; and a control device that obtains a secondary electron image and a transmitted electron image on the basis of the secondary electrons and the transmitted electrons detected by the secondary electron detector and the transmitted electron detectors and stores the secondary electron image and the transmitted electron image. The sample stage is provided with cooling means for cooling the sample. The vacuum system is provided with a cold trap that sucks moisture from around the sample and a vacuum gauge that measures the degree of vacuum of the vacuum system.

The invention relates to charged particle beam generator comprising a charged particle source for generating a charged particle beam, a collimator system comprising a collimator structure with a plurality of collimator electrodes for collimating the charged particle beam, a beam source vacuum chamber comprising the charged particle source, and a generator vacuum chamber comprising the collimator structure and the beam source vacuum chamber within a vacuum, wherein the collimator system is positioned outside the beam source vacuum chamber. Each of the beam source vacuum chamber and the generator vacuum chamber may be provided with a vacuum pump.

At timing t0, a brake gas (raw material gas) starts to be supplied to an ion beam generator, and the brake gas is fed into a turbo molecular pump. After timing t1, a vent valve is opened intermittently to feed atmospheric air into the turbo molecular pump. The brake gas may be different from the raw material gas. The brake gas is supplied using a gas supply system.

The invention relates to charged particle beam generator comprising a charged particle source for generating a charged particle beam, a collimator system comprising a collimator structure with a plurality of collimator electrodes for collimating the charged particle beam, a beam source vacuum chamber comprising the charged particle source, and a generator vacuum chamber comprising the collimator structure and the beam source vacuum chamber within a vacuum, wherein the collimator system is positioned outside the beam source vacuum chamber. Each of the beam source vacuum chamber and the generator vacuum chamber may be provided with a vacuum pump.

A lens element of a charged particle system comprises an electrode having a central opening. The lens element is configured for functionally cooperating with an aperture array that is located directly adjacent said electrode, wherein the aperture array is configured for blocking part of a charged particle beam passing through the central opening of said electrode. The electrode is configured to operate at a first electric potential and the aperture array is configured to operate at a second electric potential different from the first electric potential. The electrode and the aperture array together form an aberration correcting lens.

An apparatus includes an ion chamber and a valve assembly. The ion chamber may include a housing enclosing a gas and one or more electrodes. The valve assembly is coupled to the ion chamber allowing control of replacement of the gas within the housing.

A focused ion beam system has a differentially-pumped vacuum unit and a focused ion beam column, comprising: a vacuum pad, of a porous material, with a suction surface exposed in a way that surrounds the outer edge of a substrate to be processed; a substrate support on which the substrate and vacuum pad are placed, and a vacuum pump for vacuum evacuation using the vacuum pad. The system provides an arrangement in which, while a head of the differentially-pumped vacuum unit partially falls out of the outer edge of the substrate, the suction surface allows an input of air evacuated from a region between the suction surface and the head, and the processing area on a substrate is expanded by allowing the processing with an ion beam to be performed even in the vicinity of the peripheral substrate surface without requiring a large vacuum chamber.

Methods for depositing ultrathin films by atomic layer deposition with reduced wafer-to-wafer variation are provided. Methods involve exposing the substrate to soak gases including one or more gases used during a plasma exposure operation of an atomic layer deposition cycle prior to the first atomic layer deposition cycle to heat the substrate to the deposition temperature.