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.

To provide a plasma processing apparatus or an operating method of a plasma processing apparatus with improved yield. The plasma processing apparatus includes: a sample stage disposed in the processing chamber in a vacuum container; a plasma forming space in which plasma for processing a wafer is formed above the sample stage and a lower space communicated with the plasma forming space below; an exhaust port disposed at a bottom portion of the lower space; a heater for heating a lower portion of the vacuum container surrounding the lower space; a first vacuum gauge that detects a pressure in the processing chamber during the processing of the wafer; a second vacuum gauge for calibration communicated with an opening disposed in an inner wall of the processing chamber surrounding an outer periphery of the lower space below the first vacuum gauge; and a correction unit that is configured to correct an output of the first vacuum gauge by using outputs of the first and second vacuum gauges when a pressure in the processing chamber is at a pressure value regarded as 0 and at a plurality of pressure values higher than the pressure value.

In one embodiment, a multi-beam blanking device includes a semiconductor substrate, an insulating film that is disposed on the semiconductor substrate, an antistatic film that is disposed on the insulating film, a plurality of cells each of which is related to a through-hole that penetrate the semiconductor substrate and the insulating film and each of which includes a blanking electrode and a ground electrode that are disposed on the insulating film, and a ground wiring line that is disposed in the insulating film. The antistatic film and the ground wiring line are connected to each other at a joint that extends through the insulating film on the ground wiring line.

In one embodiment, a multi charged particle beam evaluation method is for evaluating trajectories of a plurality of individual beams in a multi charged particle beam which has passed through a plurality of openings provided in an aperture array substrate. The method includes measuring positions of the plurality of individual beams at each of a plurality of heights, in an optical axis direction, of an imaging plane of the multi charged particle beam, or a measurement plane on which a mark for beam position measurement is formed, the plurality of heights being different from each other, and extracting a singular beam in which a beam trajectory has changed among the plurality of individual beams based on a position difference, the position difference being a difference between beam positions of the plurality of individual beams measured at each of the plurality of heights.

A beam blanking device for a multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus is provided. The beam blanking device includes a first blanking unit, a second blanking unit and a third blanking unit. The first blanking unit includes a first blanking electrode and a first aperture. The second blanking unit includes a second blanking electrode and a second aperture. The third blanking unit includes a third blanking electrode and a third aperture. The beam blanking device includes a common electrode forming a first counter electrode for the first blanking electrode, a second counter electrode for the second blanking electrode and a third counter electrode for the third blanking electrode. The first blanking unit, the second blanking unit and the third blanking unit are arranged in a planar array and define a plane of the planar array. The first blanking electrode is arranged for generating a first electric field between the first blanking electrode and the common electrode in the first aperture for deflecting a first beamlet of the multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus into a first deflection direction. The second blanking electrode is arranged for generating a second electric field between the second blanking electrode and the common electrode in the second aperture for deflecting a second beamlet of the multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus into a second deflection direction. The third blanking electrode is arranged for generating a third electric field between the third blanking electrode and the common electrode in the third aperture for deflecting a third beamlet of the multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus into a third deflection direction. A dividing plane intersecting the planar array separates the first blanking unit from the second blanking unit and the third blanking unit, wherein the first deflection direction, the second deflection direction and the third deflection direction point away from the dividing plane.

A charged particle beam deflection device includes a substrate; a plurality of apertures provided in the substrate; a plurality of electrodes deflecting charged particle beams passing through the apertures; a plurality of light-receiving elements controlling voltages applied to the plurality of electrodes; a first optical coupler coupling continuous light to the substrate; a light distributor distributing light coupled by the first optical coupler into a two-dimensional plane; a plurality of modulators performing intensity modulation of light distributed by the light distributor; and a plurality of second optical couplers coupling the modulated light to the light-receiving elements.

A beam blanking device for a multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus is provided. The beam blanking device includes a first blanking unit, a second blanking unit and a third blanking unit. The first blanking unit includes a first blanking electrode and a first aperture. The second blanking unit includes a second blanking electrode and a second aperture. The third blanking unit includes a third blanking electrode and a third aperture. The beam blanking device includes a common electrode forming a first counter electrode for the first blanking electrode, a second counter electrode for the second blanking electrode and a third counter electrode for the third blanking electrode. The first blanking unit, the second blanking unit and the third blanking unit are arranged in a planar array and define a plane of the planar array. The first blanking electrode is arranged for generating a first electric field between the first blanking electrode and the common electrode in the first aperture for deflecting a first beamlet of the multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus into a first deflection direction. The second blanking electrode is arranged for generating a second electric field between the second blanking electrode and the common electrode in the second aperture for deflecting a second beamlet of the multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus into a second deflection direction. The third blanking electrode is arranged for generating a third electric field between the third blanking electrode and the common electrode in the third aperture for deflecting a third beamlet of the multi-beamlet charged particle beam apparatus into a third deflection direction. A dividing plane intersecting the planar array separates the first blanking unit from the second blanking unit and the third blanking unit, wherein the first deflection direction, the second deflection direction and the third deflection direction point away from the dividing plane.

A multi-beam apparatus for multi-beam inspection with an improved source conversion unit providing more beamlets with high electric safety, mechanical availability and mechanical stabilization has been disclosed. The source-conversion unit comprises an image-forming element array having a plurality of image-forming elements, an aberration compensator array having a plurality of micro-compensators, and a pre-bending element array with a plurality of pre-bending micro-deflectors. In each of the arrays, adjacent elements are placed in different layers, and one element may comprise two or more sub-elements placed in different layers. The sub-elements of a micro-compensator may have different functions such as micro-lens and micro-stigmators.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a multiple charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a subtraction processing circuit configured to subtract a corresponding shared dose from a dose of each of peripheral beams of a defect beam where control of a dose of a beam is disabled and the dose to be irradiated is excessive among the multiple charged particle beams, such that the same dose as an excess dose by the defect beam is shared by the peripheral beams of the defect beam; and a writing mechanism including a stage mounting a target object and a deflector deflecting the multiple charged particle beams and configured to write a pattern on the target object, using the multiple charged particle beams of doses in which the same dose as the excess dose of the defect beam is shared and is subtracted from the doses of the peripheral beams.

A multi-beam writing method includes performing the k-th tracking control (k being a natural number) by beam deflection in order to follow movement of the stage while collecting each beam of multiple beams, performing a plurality of shots of the multiple beams by the each beam simultaneously shifting in a rectangular or square irradiation region, which is surrounded by the size of the beam pitch and corresponding to the each beam, while performing the k-th tracking control, and returning, after the period of the k-th tracking control has passed, the tracking position to a position which is obtained by adding an offset of an integer multiple of the size of the beam pitch to the tracking starting position of the k-th tracking control where the k-th tracking control started, to be as a starting position of the (k+1)th tracking control.