Patent ID: 7925284

Claim:
A charged particle beam device including a computer operable in response to commands entered by a user of the device to control the device, wherein the device further includes an interface operable to cause data from the computer to be transmitted in the form of short message service (SMS) and/or multimedia message service (MMS) messages to a plurality of mobile devices via a mobile telephone network, the interface being operable to cause data from the computer to be transmitted to a first mobile device in response to occurrence of a first event relating to the charged particle beam device, and to a second mobile device in response to occurrence of a second event relating to the charged particle beam device, wherein the first event comprises the completion or partial completion of an operation by the charged particle beam device, wherein the device further comprises a charged particle source, a charged particle optical system for forming charged particles from said source into a beam and a scanning device operable to scan a specimen with said beam, wherein the first event comprises the completion or partial completion of a scanning operation on said specimen.