According to one aspect of the present invention, an electron beam apparatus includes charge amount distribution operation processing circuitry that operates a charge amount distribution of an irradiation region in a case that a substrate is irradiated with an electron beam using a combined function combining a first exponential function having an inflection point and at least one of a first-order proportional function and a second exponential function that converges and depending on a pattern area density; positional displacement operation processing circuitry that operates a positional displacement of an irradiation pattern formed due to irradiation of the electron beam using the charge amount distribution obtained; correction processing circuitry that corrects an irradiation position using the positional displacement; and an electron beam column including an emission source that emits the electron beam and a deflector that deflects the electron beam to irradiate a corrected irradiation position with the electron beam.

In one embodiment, a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a plurality of reflective marks disposed on a stage, an inspection aperture member configured to allow one beam to pass therethrough, a first detector detecting a beam current of a beam passed through the inspection aperture member, a second detector detecting charged particles reflected from the reflective marks, a first beam shape calculator generating a beam image based on the beam currents detected by the first detector and calculating a reference beam shape, and a second beam shape calculator calculating a beam shape based on changes in intensity of the reflected charged particles and a position of the stage. The reference beam shape is calculated before writing. During writing, the beam shape based on reflected charged particles is calculated, and variation of the beam shape is added to the reference beam shape.

In one embodiment, a data processing method is provided for generating writing data from design data and registering the writing data in a charged particle beam writing apparatus. The method includes generating the writing data by performing a plurality of conversion processes on a plurality of pieces of first frame data obtained through division of the design data corresponding to one chip, and performing a plurality of preprocessing processes on a plurality of pieces of second frame data obtained through division of the writing data of the chip, and registering the writing data of the chip in the charged particle beam writing apparatus. The plurality of conversion processes are performed in frame-basis pipeline processing, and the plurality of preprocessing processes are performed in frame-basis pipeline processing. The writing data is registered in the charged particle beam writing apparatus on a frame basis.

In one embodiment, a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a shaping aperture array forming multiple beams by allowing part of a charged particle beam to pass through a plurality of first openings, a blanking aperture array having a plurality of second openings having respective blankers each configured to deflect and blank the beam passing therethrough, a stopping aperture member having a third opening and configured to block deflected beams of the multiple beams at a position off the third opening, a first alignment coil disposed between the blanking aperture array and the stopping aperture member and adjusting a beam path, an objective lens disposed between the stopping aperture member and a stage, and a movement controller controlling a movement of a position of the third opening in an in-plane direction of the stopping aperture member.

In one embodiment, a data processing method is for creating write data from design data, and registering the write data into a writing apparatus. The method includes applying, to a plurality of pieces of first frame data into which first chip data of the design data is divided, a plurality of conversion processes to create the write data, and applying a plurality of pre-processes to a plurality of pieces of second frame data into which second chip data of the write data is divided, and registering the second chip data into the writing apparatus. The plurality of conversion processes and the plurality of pre-processes are each performed in a pipeline processing on a per-frame basis. The write data is registered into the writing apparatus on a per-chip basis, on a per-virtual chip basis, or on a per-frame basis. The virtual chip includes a plurality of chips combined together.

Systems, devices, and methods for performing a non-contact electrical measurement (NCEM) on a NCEM-enabled cell included in a NCEM-enabled cell vehicle may be configured to perform NCEMs while the NCEM-enabled cell vehicle is moving. The movement may be due to vibrations in the system and/or movement of a movable stage on which the NCEM-enabled cell vehicle is positioned. Position information for an electron beam column producing the electron beam performing the NCEMs and/or for the moving stage may be used to align the electron beam with targets on the NCEM-enabled cell vehicle while it is moving.

In one embodiment, a charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a current limiting aperture, a blanking deflector switching between beam ON and beam OFF so as to control an irradiation time by deflecting the charged particle beam having passed through the current limiting aperture, a blanking aperture blocking the charged particle beam deflected by the blanking deflector in such a manner that the beam OFF state is entered, and an electron lens disposed between the current limiting aperture and the blanking aperture. A lens value set for the electron lens is substituted into a given function to calculate an offset time. The offset time is added to an irradiation time for writing a pattern to correct the irradiation time. The blanking deflector switches between the beam ON and the beam OFF based on the corrected irradiation time.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of correcting a position of a stage mechanism, includes generating a two-dimensional map of a distortion amount at a position of a stage by applying a distortion amount of a position in a first direction of the stage at each of measured positions in a second direction as a distortion amount of a position in the first direction of the stage at each position in the second direction at each position in the first direction and by applying a distortion amount of a position in the second direction of the stage at each of measured positions in the first direction as a distortion amount of a position in the second direction of the stage at each position in the first direction at each position in the second direction; and correcting position data by using the two-dimensional map.

A method for exposing a wafer according to pattern data using a charged particle lithography machine generating a plurality of charged particle beamlets for exposing the wafer. The method comprises providing the pattern data in a vector format, rendering the vector pattern data to generate multi-level pattern data, dithering the multi-level pattern data to generate two-level pattern data, supplying the two-level pattern data to the charged particle lithography machine, and switching on and off the beamlets generated by the charged particle lithography machine on the basis of the two-level pattern data, wherein the pattern data is adjusted on the basis of corrective data.

A method for forming reliefs on the surface of a substrate, including a first implantation of ions in the substrate according to a first direction; a second implantation of ions in the substrate according to a second direction that is different from the first direction; at least one of the first and second implantations is carried out through at least one mask having at least one pattern; an etching of areas of the substrate having received by implantation a dose greater than or equal to a threshold, selectively to the areas of the substrate that have not received via implantation a dose greater than said threshold; the parameters of the first and second implantations being adjusted in such a way that only areas of the substrate that have been implanted both during the first implantation and during the second implantation receive a dose greater than or equal to said threshold.