Method for estimating patterns to be printed on a plate or mask by means of electron-beam lithography and corresponding printing device

A method for estimating patterns to be printed on a plate or mask by electron-beam lithography, comprising the following steps:

• printing with electron-beam lithography, in a resin arranged on a substrate, a set of calibration patterns
• measuring characteristic dimensions of the set of calibration patterns after printing, and saving said characteristic dimensions to memory,
• executing a program on a processing module, having access to the memory, to supply an estimation of the point spread function characterising electrons scattered during printing, based on the characteristic dimensions measured,
• estimating the patterns to be printed by convoluting the point spread function supplied with an initial value of these said patterns to be printed, wherein:
• each calibration pattern printed in the resin includes a central zone exposed to the electron beam and a plurality of concentric zones with rotational symmetry arranged about this central zone,
• the characteristic dimensions measured after printing are characteristic dimensions of the central zones of the patterns, and
• the executing a program on a processing module comprises estimating the point spread function by calculating the sum of a first point spread function portion characterising electrons back-scattered by the substrate and a second point spread function portion characterising electrons scattered in the resin, and performing an inversion of analytical modelling of the effect, on said characteristic dimensions, of applying the first point spread function portion to the set of calibration patterns.