Methods and devices for detecting a distribution of charged-particle density of a charged-particle beam in charged-particle-beam microlithography systems

A charged-particle-beam (CPB) microlithography system, comprising:

• a reticle stage configured to hold a reticle that defines a pattern to be transferred to a lithographic substrate;
• an illumination-optical system situated upstream of the reticle stage and configured to illuminate the pattern with a charged-particle illumination beam, thereby forming a patterned beam propagating downstream of the reticle, the patterned beam carrying an aerial image of the illuminated portion of the reticle;
• a projection-optical system situated downstream of the reticle stage and configured to direct the patterned beam onto the lithographic substrate and to resolve the aerial image on a sensitive surface of the substrate;
• a deflector situated and configured to deflect the patterned beam;
• a substrate stage situated downstream of the projection-optical system and configured to position and hold the lithographic substrate at an image plane for exposure by the patterned beam;
• a pinhole diaphragm situated at the image plane, the pinhole diaphragm defining a pinhole aperture over which the deflector deflects the patterned beam;
• and
• a semiconductor amplifying CPB detector situated downstream of the pinhole diaphragm such that charged particles of the patterned beam passing through the pinhole aperture are incident on the CPB detector, the CPB detector being configured to amplify a current of the incident beam, thereby providing an amplified output current corresponding to a measurement of a distribution of charged-particle density of the incident beam.