Charged-particle-beam exposure device and charged-particle-beam exposure method

A method of exposing a charged-particle beam onto an object after passing said charged-particle beam having a rectangular cross section through a pattern of at least one aperture formed through a mask so as to form said pattern on said object, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) mounting a mask on a mask stage, said mask having at least one position detection aperture whose aperture size is larger than a size of said rectangular cross section, said mask stage being capable of shifting said mask in horizontal directions;
• b) relatively positioning said charged-particle beam with respect to said mask so that said charged-particle beam fully passes through said at least one position detection aperture;
• c) detecting a position of said mask by detecting a change in an intensity of said charged-particle beam passing through said at least one position detection aperture while shifting said mask through said mask-stage means, said change in said intensity being caused by a relative positional change between an edge of said at least one position detection aperture and said rectangular cross section;
• and
• d) controlling said mask stage based on a detected position of said mask so as to position said mask at a desired position.

A method of exposing a charged-particle beam onto an object by deflecting said charged-particle beam to a desired position on said object, said method comprising the steps of:

• positioning a beam detector successively at a plurality of positions within a deflection range of a deflector, said beam detector having a photodiode and a surface layer on said photodiode, said surface layer having an opening therethrough so that said charged-particle beam can reach said photodiode to be detected only through said opening;
• deflecting said charged-particle beam by said deflector to said beam detector to detect positions of said charged-particle beam by using said beam detector;
• obtaining a deflection efficiency of said deflector based on said positions of said charged-particle beam, said deflection efficiency being used for calibrating said deflector;
• and
• exposing said charged-particle beam onto said object by deflecting said charged-particle beam based on said deflection efficiency.

A method of exposing a charged-particle beam onto an object by deflecting said charged-particle beam to a desired position on said object, said method comprising the steps of:

• positioning a beam detector at a predetermined position within a deflection range of a deflector, said beam detector having a photodiode and a surface layer on said photodiode, said surface layer having an opening therethrough so that said charged-particle beam can reach said photodiode to be detected only through said opening;
• deflecting said charged-particle beam by said deflector to said beam detector to detect a position of said charged-particle beam by using said beam detector and to detect charged particles scattered by said opening of said beam detector by scattered-charged-particle detectors;
• calibrating outputs of said scattered-charged-particle detectors based on said position of said charged-particle beam detected by said beam detector;
• detecting a position of an alignment mark formed on said object by scanning said charged-particle beam over said alignment mark and by detecting charged particles scattered by said alignment mark by said scattered-charged-particle detectors;
• and
• exposing said charged-particle beam onto said object based on said position of said alignment mark.

A method of exposing a charged-particle beam onto an object by deflecting said charged-particle beam to a desired position on said object by use of control elements, said control elements including at least one deflector for deflecting said charged-particle beam and at least one correction coil for correcting said charged-particle beam, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) setting initial data for drivers, each of said drivers outputting a respective driving signal based on said initial data to control a corresponding one of said control elements;
• b) setting end data for a selected one of said drivers, said selected one of said drivers outputting a respective driving signal based on said end data to control a corresponding one of said control elements;
• c) detecting a change in said charged-particle beam, said change being caused by said end data;
• and
• d) checking an operation of said selected one of said control elements based on said change in said charged-particle beam.