Patent ID: 8723136
Filing Date: 2014-05-13
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a particle beam system, the method comprising: determining at least one deflection amount and at least one deflection time at which a first beam deflection module of the particle beam system connected to a data network of the particle beam system is to provide the at least one deflection to a charged particle beam corresponding to the at least one deflection amount; determining an un-blank time at which a beam blanking module of the particle beam system connected to the data network is to un-blank the beam; determining a blank time at which the beam blanking module connected to the data network is to blank the beam; generating a data structure comprising a plurality of data records, each data record comprising a command representing an instruction for at least one of the first beam deflection module and the beam blanking module, each data record further comprising a command time representing a time at which the instruction is to be sent to the data network; sorting the data records by command time; generating a set of digital commands based on the data structure, one digital command being generated for each one of the data records; and sending the set of digital commands to the network in an order corresponding to an order of the sorted records, wherein: