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.

A beam exposure device includes a light-emitting unit for emitting light beams from a plurality of light-emitting positions, a scan unit, an optical condensing system for condensing a spot of the light beams onto a surface to be exposed, and a micro-deflection unit for micro-deflecting the plurality of light beams to expose the space between the beams in the plurality of light beams. The optical condensing system includes a first microlens array arranged between the light-emitting unit and the micro-deflection unit and provided with a plurality of microlenses corresponding to the light-emitting positions; and a second microlens array arranged between the micro-deflection unit and the surface to be exposed and provided with a plurality of microlenses each microlens corresponding to the light-emitting unit.

A support for a movable element includes a stator element, a gravity compensator field inducing element mounted on the stator element, the gravity compensator field inducing element configured to apply a translational force to the movable element by controlling a magnetic field in a gap between the stator element and the movable element, and a plurality of torque compensator field inducing elements mounted on the stator element, the torque compensator field inducing elements configured to apply a torque to the movable element by controlling a magnetic field in the gap between the stator element and the movable element, the torque being about a first axis substantially perpendicular to the direction of the translational force applied by the gravity compensator field inducing element.

A maskless exposure device includes a plurality of exposure heads, each exposure head including a digital micro-mirror device configured to scan an exposure beam to a substrate, the exposure heads being disposed in staggered first and second rows, a plurality of reflecting members disposed on side surfaces of the exposure heads and having reflecting surfaces parallel with each other, a light emitting part configured to light to the reflecting members, and a light receiving part configured to receive light via the reflecting members.

In embodiments of a digital lithography system, physical design data prepared at a data prep server in a hierarchical data structure. A leaf node comprises a repeater nod, comprising a bitmap image and a plurality of locations at which the bitmap appears in a physical design. At an EYE server, a repeater node bitmap is adjusted based upon, for example, spatial light modulator rotational adjustment and substrate distortion. The adjusted repeater node and the plurality of locations in which the adjusted repeater appears is compared to the repeater of the data prep server and its plurality of locations. In further embodiments, a rasterizer generates a checksum of bitmap to be printed to a substrate, from the EYE server bitmap. The checksum is compared to a checksum of the EYE server bitmap.

The present invention discloses an electron probe positioning pattern, displacement measurement method, and positioning control method. A marker region on the substrate comprises a first line set with multiple continuous first lines and a second line set with multiple discontinuous second lines. The first and second line sets are orthogonal, with the spacing of the first line set on the scanning line differing from the spacing of the second line set. This configuration allows the periodic signals of the spacing of both line sets to be separated from a secondary electron-based video signal obtained by scanning the pattern. This separation facilitates the calculation of the electron probe's displacement in two dimensions, enabling the elimination of displacement in subsequent real-time control.

A method for imaging a mask layer includes providing a mask layer, receiving an image file and detecting at least one solid area and at least one halftone area in the image file, imaging an area of the mask layer corresponding to the at least one solid area, using a first imaging setting, wherein prior to or during the imaging a sampling pattern is superimposed on pixels of the at least one solid area, so that only a portion of the pixels of the at least one solid area is imaged, and imaging an area of the mask layer corresponding to said at least one halftone area, using a second imaging setting which is different from the first imaging setting.

The present invention is a silicon-containing sulfonium salt compound represented by the following general formula (A-1). The present invention provides: a composition for forming a silicon-containing resist underlayer film capable of forming a silicon-containing resist underlayer film that has an appropriate etching rate in multilayer resist method and can improve LWR and CDU of an ultrafine pattern; a silicon-containing sulfonium salt compound contained in the composition; and a patterning process using the composition.

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A freeform metrology information acquisition system is disclosed. The system includes a measurement probe, one or more cameras, and a computing device. The measurement probe is configured to obtain metrology information for an object under inspection. The camera(s) are configured to image a scene including the measurement probe and the object under inspection. The computing device is configured to receive the metrology information from the measurement probe, receive one or more images from the one or more cameras, determine a position of the measurement probe in the scene based at least on the one or more images, spatially registering the metrology information acquired by the measurement probe to one or more determined positions of the measurement probe in the scene, and visually present, via a display, a visual representation of the metrology information spatially registered to the one or more determined positions of the measurement probe in the scene.

A method for obtaining line width compensating data for a workpiece patterning device comprises printing of a calibration pattern with an exposure beam that is sweepable in a sweep direction. The calibration pattern has a multitude of exposed and unexposed lines extending in the sweep direction having different line widths and different distances to neighboring lines. Line widths are measured. Deviations of the measured line widths are calculated. Based on the calculated deviations, line width compensating data is computed, intended for adapting line widths of pattern print data prior to printing to compensate for the calculated deviations. The line width compensating data is associated with at least an intended line width and information about whether the line is an exposed or unexposed line. A method for calibrating print data and a method for printing a pattern based thereon are also disclosed as well as systems therefore.