1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ion beam processing apparatus which allows the operation of specimen replacement on the specimen holder to be performed automatically, and to a specimen replacing method for such an ion beam processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional ion beam processing apparatuses, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-23843 and 61-18132, include a specimen turning mechanism for turning a specimen holder in a vacuum vessel around a center axis and a specimen holder tipping mechanism for tipping the specimen holder, thereby enabling a uniform irradiated with an ion beam.
In an ion beam processing apparatus, it is necessary to cool the specimen while the specimen is processed and, for this purpose a cooling method has been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 56-48132, wherein the specimen holder is provided with flow passages, through which cooling water or cooling gas flows, thereby cooling the specimen from behind.
In the prior-art techniques mentioned above, the specimen is secured to the specimen holder by locking the outer periphery of the specimen by screws or the like, so that only manual replacement of specimen is possible.
Further, to adequately cool the specimen by cooling water or cooling gas flowing on the specimen holder, the specimen must be placed in close contact with the surface of the specimen holder. Thus, manual replacement of the specimen is necessary.
A problem with the manual replacement of the specimen resides in the fact that the vacuum vessel must be opened to atmospheric air each time a specimen replacement is performed. Once the vacuum vessel has been opened, it usually takes about 30 to 60 minutes to re-create a vacuum of the same level as before, thereby substantially reducing productivity. Moreover, a manual replacing operation is rather difficult to perform and, is time consuming.