Patent ID: 8354652

Claim:
An ion source comprising: a chamber for containing a plasma and including an outlet for ions; and an accelerator mounted at the outlet for drawing a stream of ions from the plasma and forming them into a beam traveling in a given direction, wherein the accelerator includes first through fourth generally parallel grids which are spaced apart and juxtaposed in numerical order in the given direction; a first set of supports comprising a plurality of first support elements which pass through respective first openings in the first through fourth grids, wherein each of the first support elements is mechanically decoupled from the second grid and supports a position of the third grid; and a second set of supports comprising a plurality of second support elements which pass through respective second openings in the first through fourth grids, each of the second openings spaced apart from each of the first openings, wherein each of the second support elements is mechanically decoupled from the third grid and supports a position of the second grid.