Fujitsu Corporation

Adv Antest Corporation

Soichiro Arai

Hiroshi Yasuda

Junichi Kai

Yoshihisa Oae

Kenichi Miyazawa

Takamasa Satoh

Tomohiko Abe

Keiichi Betsui

Shigeru Maruyama

Hideki Nasuno

Hidefumi Yabara

Akio Yamada

Kiichi Sakamoto

Hisayasu Nishino

Isamu Seto

Masami Takigawa

Takashi Kiuchi

Yasushi Takahashi

Yoshihisa Ooaeh

Hitoshi Watanabe

Moritaka Nakamura

Manabu Ohno

Shunsuke Hueki

Takayuki Nakatani

A charged particle beam exposure method includes the steps of creating dot pattern data indicative of a pattern to be exposed, storing the dot pattern data in a first storage device having a first access speed, transferring the dot pattern data from the first storage device to a second storage device having a second, higher access speed, reading the dot pattern data out from the second storage device, and producing a plurality of charged particle beams in response to the dot pattern data read out from the second storage device by means of a blanking aperture array, wherein the blanking aperture array includes a plurality of apertures each causing turning-on and turning-off of a changed particle beam pertinent to the aperture in response to the dot pattern data.

Charged particle beam exposure system and method

A charged particle beam exposure method including the steps of creating dot pattern data indicative of a pattern to be exposed, storing the dot indicative of a pattern to be exposed, storing the dot pattern data in a first storage device having a first access speed, transferring the dot pattern data from the first storage device to a second storage device having a second, higher access speed, reading the dot pattern data out from the second storage device; and producing a plurality of charged particle beams in response to the dot pattern data read out from the second storage device by means of a blanking aperture array. The blanking aperture array includes a plurality of apertures each causing turning-on and turning-off of a changed particle beam pertinent to the aperture in response to the dot pattern data.

A charged particle beam exposure apparatus of the BAA type is disclosed, which improves the transmission rate of at least a signal transmission path leading from a blanking aperture array (BAA) control circuit to at least a blanking electrode and has an increased BAA driving speed. The impedance of the signal transmission path leading from the driver of the BAA control circuit to the BAA electrode is rendered to coincide with the output impedance of the driver of the BAA control circuit. Further, an auxiliary transmission path is provided for leading the signal transmission path inside a column outside of the column, and terminates with a resistor having the same impedance with the transmission impedance, thereby matching the impedance of the signal transmission path.

Charged particle beam exposure apparatus

A method for exposing an exposure pattern on an object by a charged particle beam, including the steps of: shaping a charged particle beam into a plurality of charged particle beam elements in response to first bitmap data indicative of an exposure pattern, such that the plurality of charged particle beam elements are selectively turned off in response to the first bitmap data; focusing the charged particle beam elements upon a surface of an object; and scanning the surface of the object by the charged particle beam elements; the step of shaping including the steps of: expanding pattern data of said exposure pattern into second bitmap data having a resolution of n times (n.gtoreq.2) as large as, and m times (m.gtoreq.1) as large as, a corresponding resolution of the first bitmap data, respectively in X- and Y-directions; dividing the second bitmap data into cells each having a size of 2n bits in the X-direction and 2m bits in said Y-direction; and creating the first bitmap data from the second bitmap data by selecting four data bits from each of the cells, such that a selection of the data bits is made in each of the cells with a regularity in the X- and Y-directions and such that the number of rows in the X-direction and the number of columns in the Y-direction are both equal to 3 or more.

Method and system for exposing an exposure pattern on an object by a

A device exposing a wafer to charged-particle beams in an exposure process generates a plurality of micro beams and controls deflection of each of the micro beams, relative to whether or not the micro beams reach the wafer, in accordance with control data. A data processing unit inserts data-position-adjustment data into the control data for each exposure. A first data-storage unit stores the control data, inserted with the data-position-adjustment data, and outputs the control data at a time of the exposure process. Storage positions of the control data in the first data-storage unit are adjusted by the data-position-adjustment data so that the control data can be continuously read from the first data-storage unit for maintaining a continuous exposure process.

Charged-particle-beam exposure device and method capable of high-speed

The present invention relates to an exposure method of a multi-beam type in which a stage mounting a sample to be exposed is continuously moved in a first direction, and charged-particle beams are controlled so as to form a desired beam shape as a whole, and in which a pattern is formed on the sample by deflecting the charged-particle beams by a main deflector and a sub deflector. Patterns to be drawn are divided into pattern data on a cell stripe basis which corresponds to an area which can be exposed when the sub deflector scans the charged-particle beams one time. The pattern data on the cell stripe basis is stored into a memory. Then, position data indicative of cell stripes is stored, in an exposure sequence, together with address information concerning the memory in which the pattern data is stored. The deflection amount data relating to the main deflector and the sub deflector is calculated from the position data. Patterns are drawn on the wafer by using the pattern data and the deflection amount data.

Charged-particle beam exposure system and method

Before figure data are expanded into a bitmap, a checksum is calculated in unit of bitmap data corresponding to a cell stripe of scanning over which continuous exposure is possible. When the checksum is calculated after expanding the data into the bitmap, the interim calculation result of refocus values is used. In exposure, exposing k number of sub rectangular areas by repeating a sub scanning k number of times, jumping a deflection by a main deflector toward an center of remaining sub rectangular areas whose number is (p-k) inside a main rectangular areas and exposing remained (p-k) number of the sub rectangular areas by repeating the sub scanning (p-k) times after the jumping is settled. In an amplifier & low pass filter for supplying a drive voltage to a sub deflector, the cutoff frequency is lowed during flyback in a sawtooth waveform without changing an amplification factor.

Method of and system for exposing pattern on object by charged particle

A charged particle beam exposure method including steps of creating dot pattern data indicative of a pattern to be exposed, storing the dot pattern data in a first storage device having a first access speed, transferring the dot pattern data from the first storage device to a second storage device having a second, higher access speed, reading the dot pattern data out from the second storage device, and producing a plurality of charged particle beams in response to the dot pattern data read out from the second storage device by means of a blanking aperture array. The blanking aperture array includes a plurality of apertures each causing turning-on and turning-off of a changed particle beam pertinent to the aperture in response to the dot pattern data.

A method for providing charged particle beam exposure onto an object having a plurality of chip areas with a plurality of aligning marks formed in correspondence to each of said chip areas. A charged particle beam is irradiated upon an object mounted on a mobile step based upon positions of the aligning marks. Actual positions of the alignment marks are detected and compared to the design positions of the alignment marks to determine approximate relationships which are used to calculate an actual position to perform exposure.

Method of providing changed particle beam exposure in which

Charged particle beam exposure system

Adjusting variable delay circuit 311, receiving signal S1, is connected to the input of drive circuit 312. A time point t1, when the output potential of drive circuit 312 traverses reference potential VA between the potential Va of traveling wave V1F of the output potential and 0 V, is detected by comparator 52 for detecting the front edge of V1F, detecting variable delay circuit 50 for delaying signal S1 and D flip-flop 51 for holding the output of comparator 52 at the timing of front edge of the signal outputted from delay circuit 50. A time point t2, when the output potential of drive circuit 312 traverses reference potential VB between the superimposed potential of traveling wave V1F and reflected wave V1B and VA, is detected by comparator 62 for detecting the front edge of V1B, detecting variable delay circuit 60 for delaying signal S1 and D flip-flop 61 for holding the output of comparator 62 at the timing of front edge of the signal outputted from delay circuit 60. The delay time of adjusting variable delay circuit 311 is set so that value {t1+(t2-t1)/2} becomes substantially same as to all the output potentials of drive circuit 31 and so on.

Method and system for changed particle beam exposure

By using a blanking aperture array BAA, the density of the bit map data in the portions where adjacent areas are linked is decreased toward the outside. On the lower surface of the holder of the BAA chip, a ball grid array wired to blanking electrodes is formed, to be pressed in contact against pads on a wiring base board. The registered bit map data for an isosceles right triangle are read out from address A=A0+�RA.multidot.i! (A0 and i are integers, � ! is an operator for integerizing), masked, and then shifted by bits to be deformed. From registered bit map data for proximity effect correction, the area which corresponds to the size of the object of correction and the required degree of proximity affect correction is extracted, and logic operation with the bit map data of the object of correction is performed to achieve proximity affect correction. Before figures data are expanded into bit map, a checksum is determined in units of bit map data corresponding to the range of one session of scanning over which continuous exposure is possible. A sine wave voltage is provided to an electrostatic deflector and during a one-shot exposure period, an electron beam is caused to scan for an integer number of times on a block of a mask and the positional misalignment of the electron beam at the lower aperture stop is corrected.

To improve in the throughput of an exposure system, the setting time during a step change in the output of an amplifier is reduced by switching resistance between the amplifier and deflector, a glitch waveform generated during a step change in the output of a D/A converter at the preceding stage of the amplifier, is anticipated and is canceled out with a correction waveform, after the output of the D/A converter has settled, this output is sample held and the step change is interpolated at a smoothing circuit, the deflection area is increased by positioning a electrostatic deflector offset around the optical axis relative to another electrostatic deflector, the response speed of the main deflection is improved by adding auxiliary deflection coils of one or two turn, and the alignment time is reduced by combining the coordinate conversion in the wafer area and in the chip area. In order to correct the astigmatism of the electromagnetic lens, two stages of coils are provided and an electric current corresponding to the quantity of deflection is supplied to the coils.

Method of and system for charged particle beam exposure

To improve the throughput of an exposure system, the setting time during a step change in the output of an amplifier is reduced by switching resistance between the amplifier and a deflector. A glitch waveform generated during a step change in the output of a D/A converter at the preceding stage of the amplifier is anticipated and is cancelled out with a correction waveform. After the output of the D/A converter has settled, this output is sample-held and the step change is interpolated with a smoothing circuit. The deflection area is increased by positioning an electrostatic deflector offset around the optical axis relative to another electrostatic deflector, and the response speed of the main deflection is improved by adding auxiliary deflection coils of one or two turns. The alignment time is reduced by combining the coordinate conversion in the wafer area and in the chip area. In order to correct the astigmatism of the electromagnetic lens, two stages of coils are provided and an electric current corresponding to the quantity of deflection is supplied to the coils.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Soichiro Arai