Charged particle beam deflection method with separate stage tracking and stage positional error signals

A method for charged-particle-beam patterning, comprising:

• carrying a substrate which is coated with resist on a movable stage in vacuum, within the field of at least one steerable charged-particle beam;
• moving said stage at a nominally constant velocity in a first direction, while repeatedly measuring the instantaneous position of the stage;
• deflecting the charged-particle beam to compensate for the movement of said stage, said deflecting including:
• compensating for average velocity of said stage, and
• separately compensating for the difference between an instantaneous position of said stage and a calculated position based on said average velocity,
• wherein the separately compensating action has a much lower bandwidth than the step of compensating for average velocity;
• and
• deflecting the charged-particle beam in a second direction, while also dynamically controlling the intensity of the charged-particle beam, to thereby write a pattern onto the resist.

A method for charged-particle-beam patterning, comprising:

• carrying a substrate which is coated with resist on a movable stage in vacuum, within the field of at least one charged-particle beam;
• moving said stage at a nominally constant velocity, while
• interferometrically measuring the instantaneous position of the stage,
• modulating and deflecting the charged-particle beam to thereby write a pattern into the resist, and
• deflecting the charged-particle beam to compensate for the movement of said stage, by compensating for average velocity of said stage, and separately compensating for the difference between an instantaneous position of said stage and a calculated position based on said average velocity, wherein the separately compensating action has a much lower bandwidth than the step of compensating for average velocity.