Electron beam exposure apparatus and its control method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasato Muraki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electron beam exposure apparatus for drawing a pattern on an object to be exposed using a plurality of electron beams. The apparatus includes an electron beam source for emitting electrons, a plurality of elementary electron optical systems for respectively forming intermediate images of the electron source, a projection electron optical system for projecting the plurality of intermediate images onto the object to be exposed and an adjustment unit for dynamically adjusting sizes of dot patterns formed on the object to be exposed upon projection of the intermediate images in correspondence with fields to be exposed of the pattern to be drawn by exposure on the object to be exposed.
Claims16
An electron beam exposure apparatus for drawing a pattern on an object to be exposed using a plurality of electron beams, said apparatus comprising:
- an electron source for emitting electrons;
- a plurality of elementary electron optical systems for respectively forming intermediate images of said electron source;
- a projection electron optical system for projecting the plurality of intermediate images onto the object to be exposed;
- an illumination electron optical system, which is located between said electron source and said plurality of elementary electron optical systems, for converting the electrons emitted by said electron source into a substantially collimated electron beam and for commonly irradiating the electron beam onto said plurality of elementary electron optical systems;
- and
- an adjustment unit for adjusting the focal length of said illumination electron optical system to commonly adjust sizes of the intermediate images to be projected onto the object to be exposed.
A method of controlling an electron beam exposure apparatus, which has an electron source for emitting electrons, a plurality of elementary electron optical systems for respectively forming intermediate images of said electron source, a projection electron optical system for projecting the plurality of intermediate images onto the object to be exposed, and an illumination electron optical system, which is located between said electron source and said plurality of elementary electron optical systems, for converting the electrons emitted by said electron source into a substantially collimated electron beam and for commonly irradiating the electron beam onto said plurality of elementary electron optical systems, said method comprising the step of:
- adjusting the focal length of the illumination electron optical system to commonly adjust sizes of the intermediate images to be projected onto the object to be exposed.
A method of generating exposure control data used for controlling an electron beam exposure apparatus, which has an electron source for emitting electrons, a plurality of elementary electron optical systems for respectively forming intermediate images of said electron source, a projection electron optical system for projecting the plurality of intermediate images onto the object to be exposed, and an illumination electron optical system, which is located between said electron source and said projection electron optical systems, for converting the electrons emitted by said electron source into a substantially collimated electron beam and for commonly irradiating the electron beam onto said plurality of elementary electron optical systems, said method comprising the steps of:
- dividing a pattern to be drawn by exposure on the object to be exposed into a plurality of blocks;
- detecting features of patterns in the blocks;
- determining the focal length of the illumination electron optical system to commonly adjust sizes of the intermediate images to be projected onto the object to be exposed;
- and
- generating exposure control data on the basis of the determination result.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.