Patent ID: 7015483

Claim:
A focused ion beam system comprising: a specimen chamber; an FIB column disposed in the specimen chamber; a SEM stage disposed in the specimen chamber and having a SEM specimen holder, a side entry stage and a TEM specimen holder disposed along an x-axis direction of said specimen chamber; and a micro-sampling manipulator and a SEM holder exchanger chamber disposed along a y-axis direction of said specimen chamber, wherein; the SEM stage comprises: an x-table for moving a specimen in the x-direction; a y-table for moving the specimen in a direction perpendicular to the x-axis along a specimen plane; a z-table for moving the specimen in a direction perpendicular to the specimen plane and perpendicular to the x-axis; a rotation table for rotating the specimen about an axis perpendicular to the specimen plane; and a tilt table for rotating the specimen about an axis parallel with the x-axis; the side entry stage comprises; an x-micromotion driver for moving said TEM specimen holder in the x-direction; and a yzt-micromotion driver for moving said TEM specimen holder in the z-direction and in a tilted direction, wherein the x-micromotion driver and the yzt-micromotion driver are disposed in said specimen chamber to oppose each other, and said x-micromotion driver is disposed in a hollow area defined in a tilt shaft for rotatably supporting said tilt table; the tilt table including a protrusive flapper, said flapper configured to come into abutment to a leading end of said x-micromotion driver as said z-table moves up, causing the leading end of said x-micromotion driver to move up, said flapper further configured to move away from the leading end of said x-micromotion driver as said z-table moves down, causing the leading end of said x-micromotion driver to be positioned in abutment to the leading end of said yzt-micromotion driver.