Electron Beam Column Developments for Submicron- and Nanolithography

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Abstract
Recent advances in thermal field emission (TFE) electron beam optics column design for lithography are described. Innovations include source vibration mode mapping, accelerating electron gun lens, gun arc-suppression, automated cathode pyrometer, and experimental deflection control system. Several of these column optics and system enhancements, which improve the accuracy and reliability of MEBES° R IV-TFE systems, have enabled patterning of 64 Mbit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) 5×-reduction reticles. A 13000-hour cathode lifetime has been achieved in a production environment. Automated column setups over the entire operating range with 99% success and 5 min average times are possible. Blanking at 160 MHz with 30 nm (3σ) critical dimension control is achieved. Data obtained with a new experimental deflection control method can quickly compensate stripe butting drift to high accuracy. Challenges in mask patterning for advanced applications are then considered. Several accuracy and throughput issues for advanced 5× reticles for DRAM, 1× masks, and nanolithography are discussed. Examples are given of scaling recent system data as a means of estimating future error budget components.

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