US Patent Issued to FEI on Feb. 25 for "Methods for determining the virtual source location of a liquid metal ion source" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,237,142, issued on Feb. 25, was assigned to FEI Co. (Hillsboro, Ore.).

"Methods for determining the virtual source location of a liquid metal ion source" was invented by Sean M. Kellogg (Hillsboro, Ore.), Mostafa Maazouz (Hillsboro, Ore.) and James B. McGinn (Hillsboro, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Variations in charged-particle-beam (CPB) source location are determined by scanning an alignment aperture that is fixed with respect to a beam defining aperture in a CPB, particularly at edges of a defocused CPB illumination disk. The alignment aperture is operable to transmit a CPB portion to a secondary emission surface that produces...