International Business Machines Corporation

Nikon Corporation

Clay S Clement

Michael S Gordon

Rodney A Kendall

Werner Stickel

Cecil T Ho

An electronic beam lithography tool providing dimensional stability. The tool includes three or more deflection plates above an aperture diaphragm which allows the beam to be deflected away from an aperture and along a two-dimensional locus on the aperture diaphragm which is approximately symmetrical around the aperture therein. By doing so, the aperture diaphragm is symmetrically heated by the power of the charged particle beam and the geometry of the charged particle beam device is stabilized against variance in geometry of the device to a very small tolerance.

Symmetric blanking for high stability in electron beam exposure systems

A push pull digital-to-analog converter circuit configuration improves the signal-to-noise ratio when used in the common bipolar (both positive and negative) mode of operation, thereby improving its absolute accuracy. Digital data is supplied to a data buffer which includes an inverter. The inverter supplies the data to one of a pair of push pull connected DACS, referred to as dual DACS. The buffer supplies the data to the other DAC without inversion. The outputs of the pair of DACS are combined by an op-amp circuit which takes the two analog outputs from those circuits and combines them while the push pull circuits are opposed so noise is reduced and accuracy of the conversion is enhanced.

Growing community of inventors

Rock Tavern, NY, United States of America

Clay S Clement