DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CALIBRATING A CHARGED-PARTICLE BEAM

A beam calibration device (140) is presented for calibrating a charged-particle beam in a charged-particle processing apparatus in relation to a positioning of the beam with respect to a target. The beam calibration device includes a detector (145) for the charged particles that are arriving at a registering structure (143) of said device. The beam is deflected from a designated target position towards the device, by means of a lateral initial deflection, thus allowing the beam to impinge on at least one of the registering structures. The beam is scanned over the beam calibration device (140), thus covering a pre-defined region on this device including the registering structure, and using the detector, an electric current is measured as a current signal and is evaluated, to determine a central relative position of the beam with respect to an optimal position predefined on the beam calibration device surface. Using this optimal position, the beam is deflected back to the designated target position by a reverse lateral deflection which is an inverse of said initial deflection combined with a deflection correction, which represents a correction of the lateral beam position to compensate the central relative position.