An electron-beam lithography method includes, computing and outputting a development time of a positive-tone electron-sensitive layer and a parameter recipe of an electron-beam device by using a pattern dimension simulation system, performing a low-temperature treatment to chill a developer solution, utilizing an electron-beam to irradiate an exposure region of the positive-tone electron-sensitive layer based on the parameter recipe, and utilizing the chilled developer solution to develop a development region of the positive-tone electron-sensitive layer based on the development time. The development region is present within the exposure region, and an area of the exposure region is smaller than that of the first portion. As a result, the electron-beam lithography method may control a dimension of a development pattern of the positive-tone electron-sensitive layer more accurately, and may also shrink a minimum dimension of the development pattern of the positive-tone electron-sensitive layer.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a multiple charged particle beam lithography apparatus includes a circuitry configured to divide a lithography region of a target object into a plurality of pixel regions having a mesh shape and being irradiated with multiple charged particle beams; a circuitry configured to group the plurality of pixel regions into a plurality of pixel blocks configured with at least one pixel region; a circuitry configured to correct position deviation in unit of a pixel block for each pixel block of the plurality of pixel blocks; a dose calculating processing circuitry configured to calculate a dose being irradiated on the pixel concerned for each pixel where the position deviation is corrected; and a mechanism configured to write a pattern on the target object by using the multiple charged particle beams so that each pixel is illuminated with the calculated dose.

A method for projecting an electron beam used notably in lithography by direct or indirect writing as well as in electron microscopy, is provided. Notably for critical dimensions or resolutions of less than 50 nm, the proximity effects created by the forward and backward scattering of the electrons of the beam in interaction with the target must be corrected. This is traditionally done using the convolution of a point spread function with the geometry of the target. In the prior art, said point spread function uses Gaussian distribution laws. At least one of the components of the point spread function is a linear combination of Voigt functions and/or of functions approximating Voigt functions, such as the Pearson VII functions. In certain embodiments, some of the functions are centered on the backward scattering peaks of the radiation.

A charged particle beam writing apparatus includes an area density calculation unit to calculate a pattern area density weighted using a dose modulation value, which has previously been input from an outside and in which an amount of correction of a dimension variation due to a proximity effect has been included, a fogging correction dose coefficient calculation unit to calculate a fogging correction dose coefficient for correcting a dimension variation due to a fogging effect by using the pattern area density weighted using the dose modulation value having been input from the outside, a dose calculation unit to calculates a dose of a charged particle beam by using the fogging correction dose coefficient and the dose modulation value, and a writing unit to write a pattern on a target object with the charged particle beam of the dose.

Lithographic apparatuses suitable for, and methodologies involving, complementary e-beam lithography (CEBL) are described. In an example, a blanker aperture array (BAA) for an e-beam tool includes a first column of openings along a first direction, each of the openings of the first column of openings having dog-eared corners. The BAA also includes a second column of openings along the first direction and staggered from the first column of openings, each of the openings of the second column of openings having dog-eared corners. The first and second columns of openings together form an array having a pitch in the first direction. A scan direction of the BAA is along a second direction, orthogonal to the first direction. The pitch of the array corresponds to half of a minimal pitch layout of a target pattern of lines for orientation parallel with the second direction.

A charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a processing circuitry configured to calculate a third proximity effect correction irradiation coefficient where at least one correction irradiation coefficient term up to k-th order term, in correction irradiation coefficient terms of from a first order term to a n-th order term for a first proximity effect correction irradiation coefficient which does not take account of a predetermined effect, are replaced by at least one correction irradiation coefficient term up to the k-th order term, for a second proximity effect correction irradiation coefficient which takes account of the predetermined effect; and a processing circuitry configured to calculate a dose by using the third proximity effect correction irradiation coefficient.

In one embodiment, a charged particle beam drawing method includes calculating a resist film reduction amount caused by etching from data representing a relation between a resist area rate and a resist film reduction amount and from an area rate of a pattern to be drawn, calculating a remaining resist-film thickness distribution by employing both an initial thickness of the resist film and the resist film reduction amount, estimating a dimension distribution of the light-shielding film pattern from the remaining resist-film thickness distribution, creating a first dimension correction map by determining a dimension correction amount from the estimated dimension distribution, creating a third dimension correction map by synthesizing a second dimension correction map to correct a relatively macroscopic dimensional variation and the first dimension correction map, and calculating an irradiation dose of the charged particle beam by employing the third dimension correction map.

A charged particle beam writing apparatus according to an embodiment starts a wiring operation when the sum of the amount of shot data stored in a buffer memory of a transfer control calculator, the amount of shot data being transferred by a transfer unit, and the amount of shot data stored in a buffer memory of a deflection control circuit reaches the amount of data for one stripe region.

In one embodiment, a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a blanking plate including a plurality of blankers, bitmap generation processing circuitry generating bitmap data for each writing pass of multi-pass writing, the bitmap data specifying irradiation time periods for a plurality of irradiation positions, a plurality of dose correction units configured to receive bitmap subdata items obtained by dividing the bitmap data from the bitmap generation processing circuitry, and correct the irradiation time periods to generate a plurality of dose data items corresponding to respective processing ranges, and data transfer processing circuitry transferring the plurality of dose data items to the blanking plate through a plurality of signal line groups. Each of the signal line groups corresponds to the blankers located in a predetermined region of the blanking plate. The data transfer processing circuitry changes the signal line groups, used to transfer the plurality of dose data items generated by the respective dose correction units, for each writing pass.

In one embodiment, a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes processing circuitry that is programmed to perform the function of a data region determination part determining a data region based on boundaries of pixels obtained by dividing a writing area of a substrate into mesh-shaped regions, an irradiation range of multiple charged particle beams, and boundaries of stripe segments obtained by dividing the writing area into segments having a predetermined width such that the segments are arranged in a predetermined direction, a deflection coordinate adjustment part adjusting deflection coordinates of the multiple charged particle beams such that the boundaries of the pixels are mapped to a boundary of the irradiation range, and a correction part calculating a corrected dose of each beam of the multiple charged particle beams by distributing, based on a positional relationship between the beam and pixels in the data region, a dose of the beam corresponding to a pixel in the data region calculated based on write data to one or more beams, and adding doses distributed to the beam, and a writing mechanism, including a charged particle beam source, a deflector, and a stage on which a target object is placed, and the writing mechanism deflecting the multiple charged particle beams based on the adjusted deflection coordinates and applying the beams each having the corrected dose to write a pattern.