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The authors present the first results obtained with their multibeam scanning electron microscope. For the first time, they were able to image 196 ͑array of 14ϫ 14͒ focused beams of a multielectron beam source on a specimen using single beam scanning electron microscope ͑SEM͒ optics. The system consists of an FEI Novanano 200 SEM optics column equipped with a multielectron beam source module. The source module consists of the multibeam source and an accelerator lens. In the multibeam source, the wide angle beam of a high brightness Schottky source is divided into 196 beamlets and focused by an aperture lens array. The accelerator lens is positioned on the image plane of the multibeam source to direct the beams toward the SEM column. The array of source images is further imaged by the SEM magnetic lenses, and the beam opening angle is defined at the variable aperture of the SEM. The system is designed to deliver 14ϫ 14 arrays of beamlets with a minimum probe size of 1 nm. In this article, the performance of the system is examined for a fixed magnification case.

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Lithography techniques based on electron-beam-induced processes are inherently slow compared to light lithography techniques. The authors demonstrate here that the throughput can be enhanced by a factor of 196 by using a scanning electron microscope equipped with a multibeam electron source. Using electron-beam induced deposition with MeCpPtMe 3 as a precursor gas, 14 Â 14 arrays of Pt-containing dots were deposited on a W/Si 3 N 4 /W membrane, with each array of 196 dots deposited in a single exposure. The authors demonstrate that by shifting the array of beams over distances of several times the beam pitch, one can deposit rows of closely spaced dots that, although originating from different beams within the array, are positioned within 5 nm of a straight line.

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