Electron beam exposure mask, electron beam exposure method, and electron beam exposure system
View Patent ↗An electron beam exposure system is designed to correct a proximity effect. The electron beam exposure system includes: an electron beam generation unit for generating an electron beam; an electron beam exposure mask having opening portions that are arranged so that sizes of the opening portions change at a predetermined rate in order of arrangement; a mask deflection unit for deflecting the electron beam on the electron beam exposure mask; a substrate deflection unit for deflecting and projecting the electron beam onto a substrate; and a control unit for controlling deflection amounts in the mask deflection unit and the substrate deflection unit. The direction or directions of the change may be any one of a row direction and a column direction or may be the row and column directions.
1. An electron beam exposure system comprising:
an electron beam generation unit for generating an electron beam;
an electron beam exposure mask having opening portions for proximity effect correction, the opening portions being arranged so that sizes of the opening portions change at a predetermined rate in order of arrangement;
a mask deflection unit for deflecting the electron beam on the electron beam exposure mask;
a substrate deflection unit for deflecting the electron beam passed through the electron beam exposure mask and projecting the electron beam onto a substrate; and
a control unit for controlling deflection amounts in the mask deflection unit and the substrate deflection unit;
wherein said control unit controls to perform an exposure operation on a peripheral portion of a device formation pattern by superimposing the electron beam exposure mask having said opening portions, and wherein the exposure is performed in a state where the electron beam is thrown out of focus to prevent a pattern of said opening portions from being resolved, and an amount of light exposure is adjusted with an auxiliary exposure mask to change a slope angle of energy distribution in order to equalize energies reaching a threshold of development.
2. The electron beam exposure system according to claim 1 , wherein a direction of the change is any one of a row direction and a column direction.
3. The electron beam exposure system according to claim 1 , wherein directions of the change are a row direction and a column direction.
4. The electron beam exposure system according to claim 3 , wherein the rate of the change in the row direction and that in the column direction are different from each other.
5. The electron beam exposure system according to claim 1 , wherein each of shapes of the opening portions is any one of a rectangular shape and a circular shape.
6. The electron beam exposure system according to claim 1 , wherein centers of the opening portions are arranged in a grid pattern.
7. The electron beam exposure system according to claim 1 , wherein the rate of the change is any one of a linear one and a quadratic one.