Applied Materials, Inc.

Etec Systems, Inc.

Weidong Wang

Stephen A Rishton

Lee H Veneklasen

Allan L Sagle

Volker Boegli

Ulrich Hofmann

Jeffery K Varner

A lithography method and apparatus which represent a substrate surface as gray level values and determine a shape data that specifies a shape and position of a flash field. The apparatus receives a pattern in a vector format, represents the substrate surface as a grid of pixels, and then represents each pixel as a gray level value specifying a proportion of the pixel that includes the pattern. Subsequently the apparatus constructs a matrix of a quadrant of four pixels and surrounding pixels, modifies the matrix so that three intermediate shapes corresponding to an exposed region of the quadrant may be provided, determines an intermediate shape data of the quadrant; and performs a reverse modification on the shape to determine the shape data that specifies a flash field.

Method and apparatus that determines charged particle beam shape codes

An electron beam column (or other charged particle beam column) for lithography which exposes a surface to variable shapes in a raster scan. The beam column includes an electron (or ion) source that generates a charged particle beam, a transfer lens, an upper aperture, an upper deflector, a lower aperture, a lower deflector, magnetic deflection coils, and a beam objective lens. The beam is first shaped as a square in cross section by the upper aperture. The upper deflector changes the direction of the square shaped beam to pass through a specific portion of an opening defined in the lower aperture to shape the beam as desired. The lower aperture defines either a cross shaped opening or four L-shaped openings arranged as corners of a square. The combination of upper and lower apertures enable definition of exterior and interior corners as well as horizontal and vertical edges of a pattern, so that only one flash need be exposed in any one location on the surface. The lower deflector reverses any change in direction imposed by the upper deflector and further applies a retrograde scan to counteract a movement of the beam by the magnetic coils in a raster scan. The retrograde scan ensures that an exposure exposes an intended target area.

Raster shaped beam, electron beam exposure strategy using a two dimensional multipixel flash field

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Weidong Wang