Charged Particle Beam Drawing Distortion Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electron beam drawing apparatuses face challenges in achieving precise overlay and high throughput due to distortion errors during the exposure process, such as expansion, contraction, and rotation, which require extensive processing time to correct.
Innovation Solution
A drawing apparatus that generates intermediate stripe data to compensate for distortions, transforming this data into drawing stripe data using a charged particle optical system and controller, ensuring accurate overlay and efficient processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If distortion correction is performed by distorting drawing data based on measured shot distortion, then overlay precision is improved, but processing time increases enormously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing distortion correction parameters (alpha and beta) based on measured shot distortion characteristics before actual drawing operations. When distortion correction is needed during drawing, the system directly applies these pre-computed parameters to intermediate stripe data rather than performing time-consuming real-time distortion calculations on the entire drawing data, thus maintaining high overlay precision while significantly reducing processing time.
2Productivity
If beam blanking is performed on each beam according to drawing data to draw stripe drawing areas, then drawing throughput is improved, but distortion errors cause superimposition inaccuracies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by applying distortion correction specifically to the intermediate stripe data that corresponds to each beam's drawing area, rather than uniformly processing all drawing data. The system divides the drawing area into multiple stripe regions, applies beam blanking control to each stripe based on local distortion parameters, and transforms intermediate stripe data with distortion compensation for each specific beam path. This localized approach maintains high drawing throughput while ensuring accurate superimposition for each beam.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enhances overlay precision and throughput by effectively addressing distortion errors, reducing processing time and improving the accuracy of electron beam drawing on substrates.
Implementation Method 1
perform parallel drawing on a substrate with a plurality of charged particle beams
Data Source
AI summary
A drawing apparatus performs drawing overlaid with a shot formed on a substrate with a plurality of charged particle beams based on a plurality of drawing stripe data that constitute drawing data. The apparatus includes a charged particle optical system configured to generate the plurality of charged particle beams; and a controller configured to generate a plurality of intermediate stripe data as data of a plurality of intermediate stripes, adjacent ones of the plurality of intermediate stripes overlapping with each other, to obtain information on distortion of the shot, and to transform the plurality of intermediate stripe data based on the information on the distortion to generate the plurality of drawing stripe data.