Collimating structure for intense pseudospark electron beams

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:42993

Hsu, T Y; Gundersen, M A ^[1]; Frank, K ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics
2. Univ. of Erlangen-Nurnberg (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.

A study of the transport of intense electron beams produced by the back-lighted thyratron (BLT) and pseudospark through a dielectric tube collimating structure for applications including microlithography is reported. An underdense electron beam generated in a low pressure gas is charge neutralized by the back ground plasma ions and propagates with a high current and a small divergent angle. Further focusing and collimation of electron beams in a low pressure background gas is of interest for several applications including semiconductor microlithography and material processing. The electron beam is produced by the back-lighted thyratron in a low pressure ambient (20--500 mTorr). During the discharge phase, the BLT produces two distinct pulsed electron beam components, a hollow cathode beam with electron energy being nearly equal to the full pre-discharge voltage (10--20 kV), and a beam that occurs during the high current superemissive cathode phase, with electron energy corresponding to the cathode fall voltage ({approximately} 500 eV). In this report, the BLT-produced electron beam is transported through tubular metal and dielectric structures, and results are compared. Using narrow dielectric tubes, electron beams are able to propagate with high current and very small divergent angle. Experimental results indicate that, in low pressure gas ambient, dielectric tubes serve the purpose of transporting collimated electron beams with high currents (> 200 A) and current densities (> 500 A/cm{sup 2}).

• OSTI ID: 42993
• Report Number(s): CONF-940604--; ISBN 0-7803-2006-9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
42 ENGINEERING
BEAM CURRENTS
BEAM NEUTRALIZATION
BEAM PRODUCTION
BEAM TRANSPORT
COLLIMATORS
ELECTRON BEAMS
FABRICATION
MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
USES