Semiconductor wafer for providing a plurality of semiconductor chips through electron-beam lithography

A semiconductor substrate having a chip area in which a semiconductor element is to be formed, four straight scribe regions abutted against and surrounding said chip area, and four registration marks for employment in electron-beam lithography provided in said four straight scribe regions, respectively, each of said registration marks including a plurality of regularly spaced rectangular patterns extending in a parallel to each other, said rectangular patterns being arrayed such that the edges of said rectangular patterns are positioned in a straight line which runs in parallel with a boundary line of said scribe region and each of said rectangular patterns being protruded or depressed from the part of said scribe region surrounding said rectangular pattern.

Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device in a chip area of a semiconductor substrate by use of electron-beam lithography comprising the steps of forming a registration mark in a vicinity of said chip area, said registration mark including a plurality of regularly spaced rectangular patterns of one of protrusion and groove, said rectangular patterns being arrayed in a line running in a first direction, aligning said chip area in a second direction perpendicular to said first direction, and conducting selective irradiation on said chip area, said aligning step including scanning an electron beam in said first direction in the vicinity of said rectangular patterns, detecting whether said registration mark is present by use of back-scattered electrons, repeating the scanning of said electron beam in said first direction at different locations, and determining the edges of said rectangular patterns in said second direction.