Patent ID: 8304749

Claim:
A particle-beam projection processing apparatus for irradiating a target by means of a beam of energetic electrically charged particles, comprising: an illumination system for generating and forming said energetic particles into an illuminating beam which is substantially tele/homocentric and sufficiently wide, a pattern definition system located after the illumination system as seen along the direction of the beam, said pattern definition system being adapted to position an aperture arrangement composed of apertures transparent to the energetic particles in the path of the illuminating beam, thus forming a patterned beam emerging from the aperture arrangement, a projection system positioned after the pattern definition system and adapted to project the patterned beam onto a target to be positioned after the projection system, and at least one plate electrode means, each of said at least one plate electrode means i) having openings corresponding to the apertures of the pattern definition system and ii) comprising a composite electrode composed of a plurality of partial electrodes, said plurality of partial electrodes being formed in a single layer and co-located on a surface area of said plate electrode means and arranged adjoining each other according to a partitioning of the surface area of the plate electrode means into non-overlapping sub-areas, the plurality of partial electrodes being adapted to be applied different electrostatic potentials, the composite electrode as a whole having lateral dimensions covering the area permeated by the beam portion that images the aperture arrangement in the pattern definition system.