ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,658,399, issued on June 16, was assigned to Hitachi High-Tech Corp. (Tokyo).
"Ion milling apparatus" was invented by Shota Aida (Tokyo), Hisayuki Takasu (Tokyo) and Kento Horinouchi (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In a state in which an ion beam from an ion source 101 is shielded by a shutter 102, an ion milling apparatus applies a discharge voltage Vd between an anode 203 and cathodes 201 and 202 and an acceleration voltage Va between the anode and an acceleration electrode 205 with respect to the ion source, and retracts the shutter by a shutter drive source 103 to a position where the ion beam is not shielded after any one of a ...