Multi-electron beam exposure method and apparatus

A multi-electron beam exposure apparatus comprising:

• a deflector for deflecting multiple electron beams as one integral one and blanking means for providing independent control of application of the electron beams to a sample;
• a pattern generation unit for expanding compressed pattern data and generating bit map data;
• a storage unit for storing the generated bit map data in a form associated with the electron beams;
• and
• an exposure control unit for controlling said blanking mean based on the stored bit map data;
• wherein the storage unit consists of a double buffer memory unit that stores the bit map data in a next exposure unit region generated by the pattern generation unit, while the bit map data in the stored exposure unit region is repeatedly read out by the exposure control unit;
• in a case that the sample surface is represented in an X-Y coordinate system, a continuous traveling direction of a sample stage is assumed as a Y-axis direction, and the sample surface has a plurality of chips of the same kind located in a line at equal intervals respectively in the X and Y directions which are exposed;
• an exposure region of the sample surface is partitioned into multiple stripe regions having a width in the X-axis direction;
• each of the multiple stripe regions is further partitioned into multiple main fields having a width in the Y-axis direction;
• at least one of the widths of the main fields in the X- and Y-axis directions is set to a value;
• exposure pattern data for one chip are stored based on the partitioned main fields as a unit;
• the stored exposure pattern data are readout a number of times corresponding to the number of the chips repeatedly;
• and
• each electron beam provides repeated exposure of the same regions of the chips.