A multiple charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a distribution coefficient calculation circuitry to calculate, using defective beam information based on which a defective beam can be identified, for each design grid in a plurality of design grids being irradiation positions in design of multiple charged particle beams, a distribution coefficient for each of three or more beams, for distributing a dose to irradiate a design grid concerned in the plurality of design grids to the three or more beams, excluding the defective beam, whose actual irradiation positions are close to or approximately coincident with the design grid concerned, such that the position of the gravity center of each distributed dose coincides with the position of the design grid concerned and the sum of each distributed dose after distribution coincides with the dose to irradiate the design grid concerned.

In one embodiment, a charged particle beam writing apparatus includes an estimator calculating an estimated value of a process parameter of a processing device at a scheduled timing at which a substrate as an object of pattern correction is processed in the processing device from a history of the process parameter of the processing device which performs a process after pattern writing, a predictor predicting dimension distribution of a pattern formed on the substrate by the processing device performing the process with the estimated value, a corrector correcting a design dimension based on the predicted dimension distribution, and a writer irradiating the substrate with a charged particle beam and writing the pattern based on the dimension corrected by the corrector.

A charged particle beam writing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes an emission unit to emit a charged particle beam, an electron lens to converge the charged particle beam, a blanking deflector, arranged backward of the electron lens with respect to a direction of an optical axis, to deflect the charged particle beam in the case of performing a blanking control of switching between beam-on and beam-off, a blanking aperture member, arranged backward of the blanking deflector with respect to the direction of the optical axis, to block the charged particle beam having been deflected to be in a beam-off state, and a magnet coil, arranged in a center height position of the blanking deflector, to deflect the charged particle beam.

In one embodiment, a charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a storage unit storing a polynomial and a correction map for correcting deviations of writing positions, a correction processing unit correcting pattern positions in a writing area of a writing target substrate by using the polynomial and correcting the pattern positions in a specific region included in the writing area by using the correction map, and a writing unit writing patterns on a substrate by using a charged particle beam in accordance with the pattern positions corrected by the correction processing unit.

A multi charged particle beam exposure method includes calculating an effective irradiation time, for each of a plurality of control irradiation time periods for controlling an irradiation time of each beam in the multi-beams of a charged particle beam, using a blanking error time of each divided shot of a plurality of divided shots, previously acquired, due to an error of blanking control for each divided shot; generating correlation data representing a relation between the control irradiation time and the effective irradiation time; selecting, using the correlation data, for each irradiation position of a target object, the combination of the divided shots corresponding to the effective irradiation time to be closer to each desired irradiation time; and performing exposure, using the multi-beams, based on the combination of the divided shots selected for each irradiation position of the target object.

A method for determining focal properties in a target beam field of a charged-particle multi-beam processing apparatus is presented, where the focal properties relate to aperture images formed by the beamlets at or near the target within this apparatus, such as height of focus, astigmatic length, or size of blur. By modifying an electrostatic voltage of a lens or another suitable operating parameter of the projection optics, the landing angles of the beamlets are tilted by a small tilting angle, causing a small displacement of the positions where the beamlets hit the target surface. Using the amounts of displacement and the change of landing angles a map is generated that describes a mapping from the change of landing angles to the amounts of displacement as a function of the position, for instance by using a best fit to a predefined model; this map is then used to extract the focal properties, which in turn can be used to correct for imaging errors in the processing apparatus.

The invention proposes adjusting the optical imaging system of a charged-particle multi-beam processing apparatus with regard to spatial and angular image distortion of the beam field, which describes the deviation of landing positions and landing angles of beamlets from respective nominal values within the beam field. Starting from a determination of the image distortion, so-called fingerprints are determined, which represent the change of image distortion effected by a unit change of a respective operating parameter of a component of the projection optics; then values of operating parameters are obtained which optimize a corrected distortion obtained from a superposition of the image distortion and a change of operating parameters that causes a variation of the image distortion, as expressed by a linear combination of said fingerprints. The optimizing values thus obtained are applied to the respective optical elements of the projection optics. The procedure may suitable be iterated until the distortion is suitably optimized.

A multi-charged particle beam writing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a region setting unit configured to set, as an irradiation region for a beam array to be used, the region of the central portion of an irradiation region for all of multiple beams of charged particle beams implemented to be emittable by a multiple beam irradiation mechanism, and a writing mechanism, including the multiple beam irradiation mechanism, configured to write a pattern on a target object with the beam array in the region of the central portion having been set in the multiple beams implemented.

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 transferring a pattern onto a substrate by direct writing by means of a particle or photon beam comprises: a step of producing a dose map, associating a dose to elementary shapes of the pattern; and a step of exposing the substrate according to the pattern with a spatially-dependent emitted dose depending on the dose map; wherein the step of producing a dose map includes: computing at least first and second metrics of the pattern for each of the elementary shapes, the first metric representative of features of the pattern within a first range from the elementary shape and the second metric representative of features of the pattern within a second range, larger than the first range, from the elementary shape; and determining the emitted dose associated to each of the elementary shapes of the pattern as a function of the metrics. A computer program product is provided for carrying out such a method or at least the step of producing a dose map.