Apparatus for transferring a substrate in a lithography system

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring substrates within a lithography system, the lithography system comprising a substrate preparation unit for clamping a substrate onto a substrate support structure to form a clamped substrate, and an interface with a substrate supply system for receiving unclamped substrates.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#Various aspects of the invention will be further explained with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic drawing of an embodiment of a charged particle lithography apparatus;

#FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a modular lithography apparatus;

#The following is a description of various embodiments of the invention, given by way of example only and with reference to the drawings.

#FIG. 1 shows a simplified schematic drawing of an embodiment of a charged particle lithography apparatus 100. Such lithography systems are described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,897,458 and 6,958,804 and 7,019,908 and 7,084,414 and 7,129,502, U.S. patent application publication no. 2007/0064213, and co-pending U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 61/031,573 and 61/031,594 and 61/045,243 and 61/055,839 and 61/058,596 and 61/101,682, which are all assigned to the owner of the present invention and are all hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

#In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the lithography apparatus 100 comprises an electron source 101 for producing an expanding electron beam 120. The expanding electron beam 120 is collimated by collimator lens system 102. The collimated electron beam 121 impinges on an aperture array 103, which blocks part of the beam to create a plurality of beamlets 122. The system generates a large number of beamlets 122, preferably about 10,000 to 1,000,000 beamlets.