A charged particle beam emitting device includes at least two charged
particle beam guns, each of the at least two charged particle beam guns
having a separate charged particle emitter with an emitting surface for
emitting a respective charged particle beam. The charged particle beam
emitting device further includes an aperture element comprising at least
one aperture opening and a deflector unit. The deflector unit is adapted
for alternatively directing the charged particle beams of the at least
two charged particle beam guns on the at least one aperture opening so
that, at the same time, one of the at least two charged particle beams is
directed on the aperture opening while the respective other charged
particle beam of the at least two charged particle beams is deflected
from the aperture opening by the deflector unit. At the same time, only
one of the two charged particle beam guns is used so that the temporarily
unused charged particle beam gun can be subjected to a cleaning
procedure. This ensures that the emitting surfaces of both charged
particle beam guns can be alternatively and frequently cleaned with
minimum interruption of the operation of the charged particle beam
device.