Ion beam lithography system
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorKa-Ngo Leung
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Abstract
A maskless plasma-formed ion beam lithography tool provides for patterning of sub-50 nm features on large area flat or curved substrate surfaces. The system is very compact and does not require an accelerator column and electrostatic beam scanning components. The patterns are formed by switching beamlets on or off from a two electrode blanking system with the substrate being scanned mechanically in one dimension. This arrangement can provide a maskless nano-beam lithography tool for economic and high throughput processing.
Claims14
A maskless nano-ion-beam lithography (MNBL) system, comprising:
- a plasma generator which produces ions in a plasma generation region;
- a pattern generator positioned adjacent to the plasma generation region of the ion source for electrostatically producing a controlled pattern of micro-ion-beamlets;
- a high voltage source connected between the pattern generator and workpiece for accelerating and focusing the micro-ion-beamlets extracted from the plasma generation region through the pattern generator to produce a demagnified final ion beam on the workpiece.
A method of producing a focused ion beam comprising a plurality of beamlets in a predetermined pattern, comprising:
- generating a plasma;
- extracting ions from the plasma through a pattern generator which produces the predetermined pattern of beamlets;
- applying a voltage between the pattern generator and a workpiece on which the ion beam is directed to produce a demagnified ion beam at the workpiece.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.