Lithographic apparatuses suitable for complementary e-beam lithography (CEBL) are described. In an example, a method of forming a pattern for a semiconductor structure includes forming a pattern of parallel lines above a substrate. The method also includes aligning the substrate in an e-beam tool to provide the pattern of parallel lines parallel with a scan direction of the e-beam tool. The e-beam tool includes a column having a blanker aperture array (BAA) with a staggered pair of columns of openings along an array direction orthogonal to the scan direction. The method also includes forming a pattern of cuts or vias in or above the pattern of parallel lines to provide line breaks for the pattern of parallel lines by scanning the substrate along the scan direction. A cumulative current through the column has a non-zero and substantially uniform cumulative current value throughout the scanning.

Provided is a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus including: an emission unit emitting a charged particle beam; a restriction aperture unit having a first opening having a variable opening area, the restriction aperture unit shielding a portion of the charged particle beam; a shaping aperture array substrate having a plurality of second openings, the shaping aperture array substrate forming multiple beams by allowing the shaping aperture array substrate to be irradiated with the charged particle beam passing through the first opening and allowing a portion of the charged particle beam to pass through the plurality of second openings; and a blanking aperture array substrate having a plurality of third openings, each beam of the multiple beams passing through the plurality of third openings, the blanking aperture array substrate being capable of independently deflecting each beam of the multiple beams.

An apparatus may include a scanner, arranged to receive an ion beam, and arranged to deliver a scan signal, defined by a scan period, to scan the ion beam between a first beamline side and a second beamline side. The apparatus may include a corrector module, disposed downstream of the scanner, and defining a variable path length for the ion beam, between the first beamline side and the second beamline side, wherein a difference in propagation time between a first ion path along the first beamline side and a second ion path along the second beamline side is equal to the scan period.

The invention relates to an exposure apparatus and a method for projecting a charged particle beam onto a target. The exposure apparatus comprises a charged particle optical arrangement comprising a charged particle source for generating a charged particle beam and a charged particle blocking element and/or a current limiting element for blocking at least a part of a charged particle beam from a charged particle source. The charged particle blocking element and the current limiting element comprise a substantially flat substrate provided with an absorbing layer comprising Boron, Carbon or Beryllium. The substrate further preferably comprises one or more apertures for transmitting charged particles. The absorbing layer is arranged spaced apart from the at least one aperture.

The invention is directed to suppress charge of a region of interest or damage in the region of interest caused by blanking. A charged particle beam device includes: a deflector configured to scan a region of interest with a beam emitted from a beam source; a second deflector configured to retract the beam to outside of the region of interest after scanning the region of interest with the beam; and one or more computer systems including one or more processors configured to execute a program stored in a storage medium, in which the one or more computer systems determine a retraction direction or a retraction position of the beam (Step S402) based on a scanning direction of the beam in the region.

A charged particle beam apparatus for scanning a specimen with a charged particle beam and acquiring a scan image. The charged particle beam apparatus including: an optical system that includes a pulse mechanism for illuminating the specimen with pulses of the charged particle beam, and a deflector that deflects the charged particle beam and scans the specimen with the deflected charged particle beam; and a control unit that controls the optical system. The control unit controls the optical system so as to satisfy T = n × t (n is a natural number). T represents a dwell time of the charged particle beam in each pixel of the scan image, and t represents a cycle of pulses of the charged particle beam.

According to one embodiment, a charged particle beam writing apparatus includes, a writing mechanism, a writing control circuit, a deflection operation control circuit configured to generate control data for controlling the blanking of each of the charged particle beams based on the shot data, a storage, a blanking control circuit configured to control the blanking based on the control data, and a detector. The writing control circuit is configured to, when the detector detects the abnormality during the writing, interrupt the writing, and generate interrupt position information at a position where the writing is interrupted based on the shot data which has been stored at the storage and is related to the control data that has not been used for controlling the blanking.

A method for scanning a sample by a charged particle beam tool is provided. The method includes providing the sample having a scanning area including a plurality of unit areas, scanning a unit area of the plurality of unit areas, blanking a next unit area of the plurality of unit areas adjacent to the scanned unit area, and performing the scanning and the blanking the plurality of unit areas until all of the unit areas are scanned.

A multiple electron beam writing apparatus includes an excitation light source to emit an excitation light, a multi-lens array to divide the excitation light into a plurality of lights, a photoemissive surface to receive the plurality of lights incident through its upper side, and emit multiple photoelectron beams from its back side, a blanking aperture array mechanism to provide, by deflecting each beam of the multiple photoelectron beams, an individual blanking control which individually switches each beam between ON and OFF, an electron optical system to include an electron lens, and to irradiate, using the electron lens, a target object with the multiple photoelectron beams having been controlled to be beam ON, and a control circuit to interconnect, for each shot of the multiple photoelectron beams, a timing of switching the excitation light between emission and non-emission with a timing of switching the each beam between ON and OFF.

Method for investigating samples by time-series emission of cathodoluminescence (CL) microscope having electron beam and light sensor. In discovery scan, changes caused by the electron beam are unknown, in an inspection scan changes have already been identified in similar sample. Discovery scan starts by setting parameters of the electron beam to irradiate at a first rate of dose; flushing the buffer of the light sensor; scanning the electron beam over an area of interest on the sample while collecting CL emission with the light sensor, while preventing any reading of the data from the buffer until the entire scanning has been completed; once the entire scanning has been completed, blanking the electron beam and interrogating the buffer to identify a first CL image; and then interrogating the buffer to fetch all remaining CL images and tagging all fetched CL images according to time sequence starting from the first CL image.