Electron beam exposure apparatus

A method of lithographing a pattern represented by pattern data using a deflected beam, comprising:

• analyzing the pattern data to determine overlapping stripes of the pattern to be successively lithographed;
• and
• successively, for each determined stripe:
• extracting a part of the pattern data representing the stripe for which sub-patterns are not already stored;
• dividing the extracted part of the pattern data into sub-patterns whose size is smaller than a minimum deflection range of the beam and storing the divided data;
• storing the sub-patterns of the extracted part;
• distributing stored sub-patterns to produce lithography data for driving a lithographing unit to lithograph the stripe;
• and
• lithographing the stripe,
• wherein each successive distributing is followed by deleting any sub-patterns that cannot be used for lithographing a succeeding stripe.

A computer readable medium storing control programming code for controlling a general purpose computer of a lithography system to perform a lithography process that lithographs a pattern represented by pattern data by using a deflected beam, the process comprising the steps of:

• analyzing the pattern data representing the pattern to be lithographed to determine stripes of the pattern to be successively lithographed;
• and
• successively, for each determined stripe:
• extracting a part of the pattern data corresponding to the stripe;
• dividing the extracted part of the pattern data into sub-patterns whose size is smaller than a minimum deflection range of the beam;
• and
• distributing sub-patterns of the extracted part to produce lithography data for driving a lithographing unit to lithograph the stripe,
• wherein each successive distributing is followed by deleting the sub-patterns after they have been distributed.

A computer readable medium storing control programming code for controlling a general purpose computer of a lithography system to perform a lithography process that lithographs a pattern represented by pattern data by using a deflected beam, the process comprising the steps of:

• analyzing the pattern data representing the pattern to be lithographed to determine stripes of the pattern to be successively lithographed;
• and
• successively, for each determined stripe:
• extracting a part of the pattern data representing the stripe for which sub-patterns are not already stored;
• dividing the extracted part of the pattern data into sub-patterns whose size is smaller than a minimum deflection range of the beam;
• storing the sub-patterns of the extracted part;
• and
• distributing stored sub-patterns to produce lithography data for driving a lithographing unit to lithograph the stripe,
• wherein the distributing of the sub-patterns in the lithography process is followed by deleting any sub-patterns that cannot be used for lithographing a succeeding stripe.