A method and an apparatus for correcting a proximity effect of an electron beam. An initial dose of the electron beam is preset for each exposed square, and proximity effect energy representing an influence of exposing all exposed squares other than a current exposed square on the current exposed is calculated. A corrected dose of the electron beam for the current exposed square is then calculated, and the corrected dose for each exposed square in the electron beam exposure layout matrix is successively calculated. Then, the above calculation iterates for T times to obtain a final corrected dose of the electron beam for each exposed square.

A light source arrangement for a photolithography exposure system comprises at least three light sources with different wavelengths, and a beam splitting unit comprising at least three inputs, one output, and at least two reflecting faces. An input is assigned to each light source and each reflecting face. The reflecting face reflects light that is emitted from the light source assigned to a corresponding input thereof into the output. The three light sources are arranged on three different sides around the beam splitting unit.

A conveyance apparatus for conveying a substrate is provided. The apparatus includes a movable base, a holding unit attached to the base and configured to hold the substrate and be movable with respect to the base, a cover plate attached to the base, and a driver configured to drive the base and the holding unit. The driver is configured to, in a state in which the cover plate covers a surface of the substrate held by a substrate chuck, drive the holding unit between a first space on a side of a substrate chuck where interference with the substrate chuck does not occur and a second space between a chuck surface of the substrate chuck and the substrate raised from the chuck surface.

An exposure apparatus including: a substrate holder constructed to support a substrate; a patterning device configured to provide radiation modulated according to a desired pattern, the patterning device including a plurality of two-dimensional arrays of radiation sources, each radiation source configured to emit a radiation beam; a projection system configured to project the modulated radiation onto the substrate, the projection system including a plurality of optical elements arranged side by side and arranged such that a two-dimensional array of radiation beams from a two-dimensional array of radiation sources impinges a single optical element of the plurality of optical elements; and an actuator configured to provide relative motion between the substrate and the plurality of two-dimensional arrays of radiation sources in a scanning direction to expose the substrate.

A patterning apparatus, including: a substrate holder constructed to support a substrate; a particle generator configured to generate particles in the patterning apparatus, the particle generator configured to deposit the particles onto the substrate to form a layer of particles on the substrate; and a pattern generator in the patterning apparatus, the pattern generator configured to applying a pattern in the patterning apparatus to the deposited layer of particles.

A method and apparatus to provide a plurality of radiation beams modulated according to at least two sub patterns of a pattern using radiation sources, the radiation sources producing radiation beams of at least two spot sizes such that each of the radiation beams having a same spot size of the at least two spot sizes is used to produce one of the at least two sub patterns, project the plurality of beams onto a substrate, and provide relative motion between the substrate and the plurality of radiation sources, in a scanning direction to expose the substrate. A method and apparatus to provide radiation modulated according to a desired pattern using a plurality of rows of two-dimensional arrays of radiation sources, project the modulated radiation onto a substrate using a projection system, and remove fluid from between the projection system and the substrate using one or more fluid removal units.

A light emitting diode (LED) digital micromirror device (DMD) illuminator includes at least one LED die, a non-imaging collection optic and a lens system in optical communication with the output aperture of the non-imaging collection optic. The lens system is telecentric in an object space which includes the output aperture of the non-imaging collection optic. In some embodiments, the lens system is also telecentric in image space. In some configurations, the LED dies are ultraviolet LED dies. The illuminator is configured to project high radiance optical energy onto a DMD. A projection lens can be used to image the DMD onto an illumination plane with high intensity and spatial uniformity. Examples of applications for the illuminator include maskless lithography, ultraviolet curing of materials and structured fluorescence excitation.

The invention is directed at an exposure head for use in an exposure apparatus for illuminating a surface, the exposure head comprising one or more radiative sources for providing one or more beams, an optical scanning unit arranged for receiving the one or more beams and for directing the beams towards the surface for impinging each of the beams on an impingement spot, a rotation actuating unit connected to the optical scanning unit for at least partially rotating the optical scanning unit, wherein the impingement spots of the one or more beams are scanned across the surface by said at least partial rotation of the optical scanning unit, wherein the optical scanning unit comprises a transmissive element including one or more facets for receiving the one or more beams and for outputting the beams after conveying thereof through the transmissive element, for displacing the beams upon said rotation of the transmissive element for enabling the scanning of the impingement spots.

The present invention provides a cyclic exposure scanning system having distributed multi-lens and method thereof. The system includes a processor, a platform, an optical engine, a first optical imaging device, a second optical device and a light guide structure. By executing the method of the present disclosure by the system, the optical engine projects the first optical image and the second optical image respectively. The first optical image is guided to the first optical imaging device and the second optical image is sequentially guided to the second optical imaging device through the light guide structure. The first optical imaging device and the second optical imaging device receives and projects the first and second optical images onto the corresponding exposure areas, respectively. Such that efficiency and light source utilization may be significantly increased.

A method and an apparatus for direct writing photoetching by parallel interpenetrating super-resolution high-speed laser. The method of the present application uses a parallel interpenetrating algorithm. Firstly, a multi-beam solid light spot for writing is generated based on a writing light spatial light modulator; a multi-beam hollow light spot for inhibition is generated based on an inhibition optical spatial light modulator; the multi-beam solid light spot is combined with the multi-beam hollow light spot to generate a modulated multi-beam light spot; a writing waveform is output based on a multichannel acousto-optic modulator, a displacement stage moves at a constant speed until writing of a whole column of areas is completed, an optical switch is turned off, and the displacement stage conducts one-time stepping movement; the process is not stopped until all patterns are written.