Patent 8696818 was granted and assigned to Rave Llc on April, 2014 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A system for removing debris from a surface of a photolithographic mask is provided. The system includes an atomic force microscope with a tip supported by a cantilever. The tip includes a surface and a nanometer-scaled coating disposed thereon. The coating has a surface energy lower than the surface energy of the photolithographic mask.