US Patent Issued to Hitachi High-Tech on Sept. 1 for "Electronic cleaning device" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 1 -- United States Patent no. 12,725,768, issued on Sept. 1, was assigned to Hitachi High-Tech Corp. (Tokyo).

"Electronic cleaning device" was invented by Yuto Kubonaka (Tokyo), Masaomi Ohno (Tokyo), Koichiro Takeuchi (Tokyo) and Kotaro Hosoya (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A hydrocarbon gas, which is a precursor of contamination, is dissociated by electron irradiation of a cleaner using electrons, carbon is deposited on members in a sample chamber and on a surface of a sample, and components inside the sample chamber are contaminated. Therefore, a device is provided that includes a sample chamber 101 connected to a lens barrel 112 having a charged particle sourc...