Charged Particle Lithography Multi-Chamber Vacuum Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current charged particle lithography systems face challenges in achieving high resolution and throughput due to the size, complexity, and cost of systems, as well as difficulties in maintaining a high vacuum environment and controlling contaminants like water vapor and hydrocarbons, which hinder the ability to produce smaller critical dimensions while maintaining sufficient wafer throughput.
Innovation Solution
A charged particle lithography system with a multi-chamber configuration, including a main vacuum chamber, an intermediate chamber, and a source chamber, where the system generates a plurality of charged particle beamlets using a first aperture array element with distinct beam and non-beam areas, and incorporates a pumping system with chemical or getter pumps to maintain differential pressures and reduce contaminant incidence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of beamlets is increased to achieve higher throughput at smaller critical dimensions, then productivity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the vacuum environment into separate chambers (source chamber, intermediate chamber, main vacuum chamber) that can be independently managed. This segmentation allows the beam generation and acceleration to occur in high vacuum while the aperture array and target area can operate at lower vacuum levels, reducing overall system complexity while enabling higher beamlet counts for improved throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
An intermediate chamber is introduced between the source chamber and main vacuum chamber to serve as a transition zone. This intermediary allows differential pumping and pressure gradient management, enabling the system to maintain high beam current and count while managing the complexity of vacuum maintenance across the entire system.
2Manufacturing precision
If the distance between beams is reduced to increase beam density, then manufacturing precision is improved, but object-generated harmful factors increase
Solution Approach 1:
The vacuum system is segmented into multiple chambers with differential pumping, allowing the region with reduced beam spacing to be isolated and maintained at appropriate vacuum levels independently. This prevents contaminants from affecting the high-density beam region while enabling manufacturing precision through closer beam spacing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains high vacuum conditions in the beam path and source region to create an inert environment free from contaminants. This inert environment prevents contamination of the closely-spaced beams and target, enabling manufacturing precision even with reduced beam distance.
3Reliability
If a high vacuum environment is maintained in the entire chamber to support charged particle beam operation, then reliability is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The vacuum system is divided into multiple chambers that can be pumped down independently to different pressure levels. The source chamber and intermediate chamber can be maintained at high vacuum for beam integrity, while the main chamber operates at lower vacuum, reducing total pump-down time while maintaining reliability in the critical beam regions.
Solution Approach 2:
Different vacuum pressure parameters are applied to different chambers based on their functional requirements. The source chamber maintains high vacuum (lower pressure) for beam generation, the intermediate chamber uses differential pumping, and the main chamber operates at higher pressure, optimizing both reliability and pump-down time through parameter variation across the system.
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 system effectively increases the number of beamlets, reduces beam distance, and minimizes contaminant impact, enabling higher resolution and throughput while maintaining a stable vacuum environment, thus addressing the limitations of existing technologies.
Implementation Method 1
The source chamber and the main chamber are differentially pumped such that the pressure in the main chamber is higher than the pressure in the source chamber
Implementation Method 2
the pumps may comprise chemical or getter pumps
Data Source
AI summary
A charged particle lithography system for transferring a pattern onto the surface of a target, comprising a source for generating a charged particle beam, a first chamber housing the source, a collimating system for collimating the charged particle beam, a second chamber housing the collimating system, and a first aperture array element for generating a plurality of charged particle subbeams from the collimated charged particle beam.