Low-Energy Electron Beam Direct Writing Equipment

Abstract

We proposed an electron beam direct writing (EBDW) system capable of high throughput and maskless operation based on a novel concept of using both low-energy electron beam (EB) and character projection (CP) system. We fabricated an EB optical column of low-energy EBDW equipment and obtained a resist pattern. We also investigated the beam blur and line width roughness (LWR) of lines and spaces (L/S) formed on a resist to change various EB current densities and convergence half angles. The obtained results show that a Coulomb interaction effect markedly affects the beam blur in our EB optical column. Thus, we reduce the number of sources caused by LWR and developed photoresists to obtain small LWR L/S patterns for achieving a high throughput.

Development of Multibeam Electron Beam Direct Writing System Using Third-Order Imaging Technique

“…In the following sections, these characteristics are demonstrated experimentally. We use 5 keV character-projection-type EB column 3) with the PBDA for about 100 nm square beams for this report. In this experiment, the beam size used in the proof of third-order imaging is about 100 nm, which is comparatively large, since it is technically easy.…”

“…1,2) Although electron beams (EBs) have higher resolution than optical lithography, it is difficult to achieve both high throughput and high resolution at the same time. Many studies 3) have been conducted to overcome the conflict between high throughput and high resolution, but no study has yet demonstrated a viable production-worthy solution. Owing to the low throughput of EBDW, although it has for many years tried to become a major competitor in the lithographic market, it has not succeeded in any meaningful way outside niche markets.…”