Patent ID: 7259373

Claim:
A chamber for exposing a workpiece to charged particles, the chamber comprising: a charged particle source for generating a stream of charged particles; a collimator configured to collimate and direct the stream of charged particles from the charged particle source along an axis; a beam digitizer downstream of the collimator, the beam digitizer configured to create temporally and spatially resolved digital flashes comprising groups of at least one charged particle by adjusting longitudinal spacing between the charged particles along the axis of propagation; a deflector downstream of the beam digitizer, the deflector comprising a series of deflection electrode stages disposed longitudinally along the axis to deflect said digital flashes such that said digital flashes are distributed transversely and longitudinally to the direction of propagation thereby forming a spatial pattern, said spatial pattern comprising a virtual digital stencil for exposing selected portions of said workpiece; an objective lens assembly downstream of the deflector to demagnify said digital flashes or one or more groups of said digital flashes and focus said virtual digital stencil onto the surface of said workpiece; and a workpiece stage downstream of the deflector, the workpiece stage configured to hold the workpiece.