Alignment and registration targets for multiple-column charged particle beam lithography and inspection

A method of substrate inspection using multiple charged particle beam columns, comprising:

• a) writing high-order Hadamard targets to the substrate using multiple first charged particle beams;
• b) imaging multiple features in said high-order Hadamard targets using multiple second charged particle beams;
• c) measuring beam performance in at least partial dependence on said imaging, and determining which of said features were correctly imaged in step b);
• d) until one or more features of a threshold size are correctly imaged, modifying beam parameters of said second beams in at least partial dependence on said measuring to stochastically improve beam performance, and repeating steps b) and c), targeting one or more features in said repeated step b) that are smaller than those previously determined as correctly imaged;
• and
• e) imaging multiple cut features on the substrate using said second beams with said modified beam parameters,
• wherein individual ones of said beams are projected by individual ones of the columns, and different ones of the columns have different writing areas.

A substrate lithography and inspection tool, comprising:

• a substrate stage;
• multiple charged particle beam columns, individual ones of said columns configured to produce an individual charged particle beam, different ones of said columns having different writing areas;
• and
• one or more column controllers storing instructions in a computer-readable non-transitory medium that, when executed, direct said beam controllers to:
• control said columns to write multiple Hadamard targets onto the substrate;
• image said Hadamard targets;
• calculate offsets for said columns in at least partial dependence on said image action;
• and
• control said columns to write and/or image multiple cut features, said features being targeted in at least partial dependence on said offsets.

A substrate lithography and inspection tool, comprising:

• a substrate stage;
• multiple charged particle beam columns, individual ones of said columns configured to produce an individual charged particle beam, different ones of said columns having different writing areas;
• and
• one or more column controllers storing instructions in a computer-readable non-transitory medium that, when executed, direct said beam controllers to:
• control said columns to write multiple high-order Hadamard targets in multiple writing areas on the substrate;
• control said columns to image multiple features in said high-order Hadamard targets;
• measure performance in at least partial dependence on said imaging, and determine which of said features were correctly imaged;
• until one or more features of a threshold size are correctly imaged, modify beam parameters of said columns in at least partial dependence on said measuring to stochastically improve beam performance, and controlling said columns to repeat said image multiple target features action, said measure action and said determine action, targeting one or more features in said repeated image action that are smaller than those previously determined as correctly imaged;
• and
• controlling said columns to image multiple cut features on the substrate using said columns with said modified beam parameters.