Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method of directing charged particle beams in a charged particle beam system, comprising:applying a first deflection signal to a first stage deflector, the first deflection signal corresponding to a first dwell point; andapplying a second signal to a second stage deflector, the second deflection signal corresponding to the first dwell point and being delayed with respect to the first deflection signal. 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:altering the first deflection signal to correspond to a second dwell point; andaltering the second deflection signal to correspond to the second dwell point, in which the altering of the second deflection signal is delayed with respect to the alteration of the first deflection signal, the delay being determined by the time of flight of a particle in the beam between different points in the charged particle beam system. 3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:applying a third signal to a third stage deflector, the third deflection signal corresponding to the first dwell point, andaltering the third deflection signal to correspond to the second dwell point, in which the altering of the third deflection signal is delayed with respect to the alteration of the second deflection signal. 4. The method of claim 1 in which the delay is approximately equal to the transition time of the electronics plus the time required for a charged particle to pass from the beginning of the first deflection electrode to the beginning of the second deflector electrode. 5. The method of claim 1 in which the delay is determined so as to increase the actual dwell time at each pixel. a value between one half and three halves the pixel rate. 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising applying one or more additional deflection s to one or more additional deflectors. 7. The method of claim 1 in which the charged particle beam is a focused ion beam. 8. The method of claim 1 in which the charged particle beam is an electron beam.