Patent Number: 
Section: claims

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; andsending the set of digital commands to the network in an order corresponding to an order of the sorted records,wherein:at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents an instruction for the first beam deflection module to deflect the beam corresponding to the at least one deflection amount;at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents an instruction for the beam blanking module to un-blank the beam; andat least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents an instruction for the beam blanking module to blank the beam. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents both an instruction for the first beam deflection module to deflect the beam corresponding to the deflection amount and an instruction for the beam blanking module to un-blank the beam. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents both an instruction for the first beam deflection module to deflect the beam corresponding to the deflection amount and an instruction for the beam blanking module to blank the beam. 4. The method according to claim 1, comprising determining first and second deflection amounts and first and second deflection times, wherein at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents a combined instruction for the first beam deflection module to deflect the beam corresponding to the first deflection amount and to subsequently provide a deflect the beam corresponding to the second deflection amount. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the at least one digital command comprises at least one data element representing a time difference between the second and first deflection times. 6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the at least one digital command comprises at least one data element representing at least one of: a) a deflection step size by which the first beam deflection module is to change the deflection of the beam in subsequent time steps; and b) a number of steps in which the first beam deflection module is to change the deflection of the beam between the first deflection time and the second deflection time. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the un-blank time is later than the deflection time, and a time difference between the beam un-blank time and the deflection time is variable. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the time difference between the un-blank time and the deflection time can be varied by more than 5 microseconds. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein:the data structure comprises a first data record comprising a command representing an instruction for the beam blanking module to un-blank the beam and a first command time representing a time at which this instruction is to be sent to the data network;the data structure comprises a second data record comprising a command representing an instruction for the beam blanking module to blank the beam and a second command time representing a time at which this instruction is to be sent to the data network; anda time difference between the blank and un-blank times differs from a time difference between the second and first command times. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the time difference between the blank and un-blank times differs from the time difference between the second and first command times by more than 50 nanoseconds. 11. The method according to claim 1, wherein:the data structure comprises at least one record comprising a command representing both an instruction for the beam blanking module to un-blank the beam and an instruction for the beam blanking module to blank the beam; andthe at least one command comprises at least one data element representing a time difference between the blank and un-blank times. 12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:determining a data acquisition start time at which a data acquisition module of the particle beam system connected to the data network is to start collecting data representing detected particle intensities; anddetermining a data acquisition stop time at which the data acquisition module is to stop collecting data,wherein:at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents an instruction for the data acquisition module to start collecting of the data; andat least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents an instruction for the data acquisition module to stop collecting of the data. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents a combined instruction for the first data acquisition module to start collecting the data and to subsequently stop collecting the data. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the at least one digital command comprises at least one data element representing a time difference between the acquisition stop time and the acquisition start time. 15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining at least one deflection amount and at least one deflection time at which a second beam deflection module of the particle beam system connected to a data network of the particle beam system is to provide a deflection to a charged particle beam corresponding to the deflection amount, wherein at least one digital command of the set of digital commands represents an instruction for the second beam deflection module to provide the deflection to the beam corresponding to the deflection amount. 16. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one parameter is greater than one nanosecond, the at least one parameter being selected from the group consisting of:a time difference between: a) the command time of the data record comprising the command representing the instruction for the first beam deflection module to provide the deflection to the charged particle beam corresponding to the deflection amount; and b) the deflection time;a time difference between: a) the command time of the data record including the command representing the instruction for the beam blanking module to un-blank the beam; and b) the un-blank time; anda time difference between: a) the command time of the data record including the command representing the instruction for the beam blanking module to blank the beam; and b) the blank time.