Patent ID: 7663102
Filing Date: 2010-02-16
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
1. A charged particle beam device, comprising: an emitter for emitting charged particles; an aperture arrangement with at least one aperture for blocking a part of the emitted charged particles, wherein the aperture arrangement forms a multi-area sub-beam charged particle beam with a cross-section-area and a cross-section-circumference, wherein a ratio between the cross-section-circumference and the cross-section-area is increased by at least 15% as compared to the ratio between a cross-section-circumference and a cross-section-area of a circular beam with the same cross-section-area as the multi-area sub-beam charged particle beam; and an objective lens for focusing the multi-area sub-beam, wherein the charged particle beam device, including the emitter, the aperture arrangement, a condenser lens, and a scan deflector, is adapted to focus the multi-area sub-beam charged particle beam onto the same location within the focal plane for generating a probe on the specimen being an image of a source, a virtual source, or a crossover.