Charged particle beam exposure apparatus
AssigneeAdvantest Corporation
InventorsTakamasa Satoh, Soichiro Arai
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Abstract
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.
Claims22
A charged particle beam exposure apparatus for forming a predetermined exposure pattern on a specimen using a charged particle beam, comprising:
- a column with the interior thereof held in vacuum;
- charged particle beam generating means arranged in said column for generating a charged particle beam;
- a blanking aperture array arranged in a light path of the charged particle beam from said charged particle beam generating means in said column, and including a plurality of apertures for shaping said charged particle beam and two-dimensionally arranged electrode sets arranged around each of said apertures, said charged particle beam being shaped according to whether a voltage signal is applied to each electrode or not;
- a blanking aperture array control circuit arranged outside said column for outputting a voltage signal to be applied to the electrodes of each aperture according to said exposure pattern;
- and
- a plurality of blanking aperture signal transmission paths each including a plurality of channels for applying said voltage signal output from said blanking aperture array control circuit to the electrode of each aperture, and extending from outside said column into said column;
- wherein output impedance of said blanking aperture array control circuit substantially coincides with a first transmission impedance of said blanking aperture signal transmission paths;
- said apparatus further comprising an auxiliary transmission path including a plurality of channels extending from said electrode of each of said apertures to outside of said column, having a transmission impedance substantially coinciding with said first transmission impedance, and terminating with an impedance substantially coinciding with said transmission impedance.
A charged particle beam exposure apparatus for forming a predetermined exposure pattern on a specimen using a charged particle beam, comprising:
- charged particle beam generating means for generating a charged particle beam;
- a blanking aperture array arranged in a light path of the charged particle beam generated by said charged particle beam generating means and including a plurality of apertures for shaping said charged particle beam and a plurality of two-dimensionally arranged electrode sets around each of said apertures, said charged particle beam being shaped accordingly to whether a voltage signal is applied to each of said electrodes or not;
- a blanking aperture array drive circuit for outputting a voltage signal to be applied to each of said electrodes of each of said apertures in accordance with said exposure pattern;
- and
- a resistor interposed between a power path of a predetermined DC level and a blanking aperture signal transmission path including a plurality of channels for applying said voltage signal output from said blanking aperture array drive circuit to each of said electrodes of each aperture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.