Etec Systems, Inc.

Applied Materials, Inc.

The Perkin-Elmer Corporation

Kla Tencor Corporation

Kla-Tencor Technologies Corporation

Kla Instruments Corporation

Silicon Video, Inc.

Lee H Veneklasen

William J DeVore

Sergey Babin

Robert Innes

David Lewis Adler

Marian Mankos

Lydia J Young

Robin Lynn Teitzel

Stephen A Rishton

David Trost

Allan L Sagle

William Devore

Volker Boegli

Rudy F Garcia

Christopher J Spindt

David J Clark

Gil I Winograd

Matthias Brunner

John M Macaulay

Alan D Brodie

Ralf Schmid

Chung-Shih Pan

Curt H Chadwick

Tai-Hon Philip Chang

John S Taylor

John D Greene

Daniel L Cavan

Richard R Simmons

Ralph T Johnson

Eric Munro

Chetana Bhaskar

Anil A Desai

Dan Meisburger

Juan Ramon Maldonado

Timothy L Hutcheson

Vidhya Krishnamurthi

Allen M Carroll

Barry Becker

Jack Y Jau

April Dutta

John McMurtry

John C Wiesner

Kirkwood Rough

Patrick A Corcoran

Glen E Howard

Henry Pearce-Percy

William A Eckes

Robert L Dean

Paul Wieczorek

Matthew Marcus

Weidong Wang

Dennis G Emge

Chen Hwa

Hoi T Nguyen

Bart Scholte Van Mast

Donald J McCarthy

Guy G Yagunoff

Jeffery K Varner

Huei Mei Kao

Stacey J Winter

R L Smith

Jeffrey Varner

Chris Kirk

Yen-Jen Oyang

Ming-Yie Ling

Chun C Lin

Juan R Madonado

Surendra Lele

Sam Wong

Dean Walters

David E Smith

Mike Robinson

Ray Paul

Hans Dohse

An immersion lens for a charged particle beam lithography system includes a magnetically floating shield that limits a deflection magnetic field from creating eddy currents in electrically conductive components of the system downstream from the shield. The surface of the shield lies parallel or approximately parallel to a magnetic equipotential surface of the focusing magnetic field so that the shield does not affect the focusing magnetic field. The shield is, e.g., a ferrite disk or a hollow ferrite cone defining a central bore for passage of the charged particle beam.

Method of exposing a target to a charged particle beam

Provided is a technique for generating patterns with a raster scanned beam in a photolithographic system that employs a multiple blank position flash cycle. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a beam creates a shadow of a first aperture that impinges upon a region of a stop, referred to as a first blank position. The beam is deflected so that the shadow of the first aperture moves along a first direction to a flash position, in which a portion thereof superimposes a second aperture located in the stop. To complete the flash cycle, the beam is deflected so that shadow of the first aperture impinges upon a second region of the stop, referred to as second blank position. As a result, during the flash cycle, the beam is deflected in one direction to impinge upon two different blank positions.

Technique for writing with a raster scanned beam

Disclosed is an apparatus for inspecting a sample. The apparatus includes a first electron beam generator arranged to direct a first electron beam having a first range of energy levels toward a first area of the sample and a second electron beam generator arranged to direct a second electron beam having a second range of energy levels toward a second area of the sample. The second area of the sample at least partly overlaps with the first area, and the second range of energy levels are different from the first range such that charge build up caused by the first electron beam is controlled. The apparatus further includes a detector arranged to detect secondary electrons originating from the sample as a result of the first and second electron beam interacting with the sample

Apparatus and methods for secondary electron emission microscope with dual beam

Immersion lens with magnetic shield for charged particle beam system

The present invention relates to methods of predicting proximity heating of resists in electron beam lithography in real-time as the writing proceeds enabling beam compensation in current and/or dwell time to be performed during writing. A method of using a precomputed kernel capable of proximity resist temperature evaluation in real-time as beam writing proceeds by scalar product of the kernel with a graded cell size coverage map. A shifted impulse response function is shown to give the kernel values accurate to within a few percent.

Real-time prediction of and correction of proximity resist heating in raster scan particle beam lithography

A novel dual beam low energy electron microscope (LEEM) apparatus for inspecting semiconductor circuits or masks. Direct imaging records many pixels in parallel, offering higher inspection rates than prior art scanning methods. A low energy flood beam is superimposed with a second, higher energy flood beam. The use of two beams avoids charging effects upon insulating or partially insulating substrates. Under appropriate conditions, the net charging flux to each image element can be balanced on a pixel by pixel, as well as global basis. Either the low energy or the higher energy beam may be used to form an image of the surface. An electron optical apparatus and configuration for this dual beam LEEM is described.

Apparatus for inspection of semiconductor wafers and masks using a low energy electron microscope with two illuminating beams

An electron beam apparatus is capable of registering an image on a substrate. The apparatus comprises a vacuum chamber having a wall. Electron beam source, modulator, and detector components are adapted to generate, modulate and detect an array of electron beams in the vacuum chamber. A circuit board passing through the wall of the vacuum chamber has a plurality of electrical traces to connect to the electron beam source, modulator, and detector components.

Electron beam apparatus having traversing circuit boards

A plurality of features are first formed on a workpiece in a special standard test pattern, and these features are then overwritten with a charged particle beam in an overlay pattern which matches the standard pattern such that the overlay regions overlap edges of the features in the standard pattern. A backscatter signal is generated by the interaction of the special standard patterns on the workpiece and the overwriting particle beam, and this signal is analyzed to identify and diagnose errors caused by the charged particle beam tool. The standard pattern may be formed using the same tool in its fully qualified state, and subsequent overlay tests may be conducted to identify changes in the state of that same tool.

Charged particle system error diagnosis

Apparatus and a method for non-contact electrical testing of printed circuit boards, solid state display devices, integrated circuits and other substrates with traces that connect together components of a circuit, using two modulated charged particle beams. The apparatus includes two sources of beams, electrodes to modulate the beams, optics to focus the beams and deflection coils to deflect the beams over a large area. The apparatus also has an enclosure around the optics and the deflection coils of magnetically soft material. A surrounding solenoid excitation coil creates an almost uniform axial magnetic field within the magnetic enclosure. A detection system for detecting the voltage contrast signals, including suitable signal processing system is also provided. The use of two beams simultaneously allows fast, direct measurement of impedance parameters. By selecting appropriate beam modulation frequencies, the sensitivity to a certain kind of defect can be selectively increased. The use of modulated beams and frequency filtering of the voltage contrast signals allows such measurement to be quantitative, more sensitive and more discriminating between various possible defects in the interconnection network then the prior art methods.

Testing of interconnection circuitry using two modulated charged particle beams

A moving photoconverter device that converts an incident light image into an equivalent electron or other charged particle beam image. The moving photoconverter is ring shaped and is rotated by using a motor such that the incident light image exposes a moving photoconverter surface. The photoconverter may additionally or alternatively move in an X-Y motion or radially. Continuous regeneration is provided at a site remote from the region of moving photoconverter device that converts an incident light image into an equivalent electron or other charged particle beam image.

Moving photocathode with continuous regeneration for image conversion in electron beam lithography

In a charged particle or electron beam system, gas, such as argon or helium, is introduced over the surface of a substrate and ionized to neutralize charge accumulating on the surface from interactions caused by the impinging charged particles. The gas can be distributed throughout the gas chamber or confined to an area above the substrate. The radiation beam to ionize the gas can be directed across or towards the surface of the substrate. In the latter case, the gas pressure may be reduced to zero.

Charge neutralization of electron beam systems

A charged particle beam column for generating a variable shaped (in cross section) charged particle beam. The charged particle beam column includes: a source of a charged particle beam; a first aperture defining a first opening positioned coaxial to the beam and spaced apart from the source; a second aperture defining a second opening positioned coaxial to the beam and spaced apart from the first aperture; a third aperture defining a third opening positioned coaxial to the beam and spaced apart from the second aperture; an imaging device coaxial to the beam, where the imaging device controls focusing of the beam; and at least two deflection devices coaxial to the beam which controls a path of the beam through the openings. The charged particle beam column alternatively includes a source of a charged particle beam; a first aperture defining a first opening positioned coaxial to the beam and spaced apart from the source; a second aperture defining a second opening positioned coaxial to the beam and spaced apart from the first aperture; a solenoid lens which controls focusing of the beam; and at least one deflection device coaxial to the beam which controls a path of the beam through the openings.

Apparatus and method for forming a charged particle beam of arbitrary shape

An enhanced electron source in most respects similar to a standard cathode assembly for an electron gun includes an electron emitter surrounded by a suppressor electrode, the emitted electrons passing through an extractor electrode. Additionally, the suppressor electrode includes a small ring shaped permanent magnet surrounding the opening in the suppressor electrode through which the emitter tip protrudes. The resulting magnetic field is aligned with the beam axis, and includes a tail which forms a very short focal length magnetic lens immediately following the emitter tip. This magnetic field collimates the electron beam before it enters the downstream electrostatic gun lens, thus increasing the effective angular intensity of the cathode assembly. The aberrations of this collimating lens are very low so that its useful brightness is not reduced. Also the influence of guns lens aberrations is reduced because a smaller aperture angle in the gun lens may be used to obtain higher beam current.

Electron gun having magnetic collimator

The present invention relates to methods of predicting proximity heating of resists in electron beam lithography in real-time as the writing proceeds enabling beam compensation in current and/or dwell time to be performed during writing. A shifted impulse response function is shown to give proximity heating results accurate to within a few percent. A method of using a precomputed kernel capable of proximity resist temperature evaluation in real-time as beam writing proceeds.

Real-time prediction of proximity resist heating and correction of raster scan electron beam lithography

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Castro Valley, CA, United States of America

Lee H Veneklasen