Electron beam technology—SEM to microcolumn

The role of MEMS in maskless lithography

“…In this concept, the beamlets are separated everywhere in the machine in order to prevent Coulomb interactions. In some systems, every beamlet has its own full electron optics with electron source, lenses, alignment coils, stigmators, etc., [22][23][24][25][26][27], so each column is a small SEM or Gaussian electron beam machine. The lenses and deflector units are made using MEMS technology, as shown in Fig.…”

Arrayed microcolumn operation with a wafer-scale Einzel lens

“…Maybe, the x-axis of the mesh-square of sample 1 is tilted from that of sample 2 with some angle. (2) The alignment of the column component from the optical axis would not be perfect (therefore, we applied the bias voltage to the upper electrodes of deflector to shift the beam), which will result in the directional error of each beam. There- fore, the incident angle of one electron beam to its sample plane may be different from that of the other.…”

“…The experimental result achieved with a 1 keV low-energy microcolumn proved the probe beam diameter of 10 nm with a beam current of $1 nA at a working distance of 1 mm [1]. Arrayed microcolumn operation was also proposed and demonstrated for sub-100 nm lithography [2][3][4]. It is reported that multi-beam microcolumn can offer the throughput of 25 wafers per hour (WPH) on 300 mm wafer with 50 nm patterning resolution [3].…”

“…Recently, microcolumn was demonstrated as a promising technology for the next generation lithography with high resolution and high throughput capabilities [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The experimental result achieved with a 1 keV low-energy microcolumn proved the probe beam diameter of 10 nm with a beam current of $1 nA at a working distance of 1 mm [1].…”

“…This would be more effective than EUVL in the view of investments of the cost of ownership and production facilities [7]. The arrayed microcolumn structure can be categorized by three ways: combination of single column modules (SCM), monolithic column module (MCM), and wafer-scale column module (WCM) [2]. In previous work, microcolumn operation as an array of SCM has been demonstrated, which showed the possibility of practical application of microcolumn for future application as a high throughput lithography system [3].…”