A blanking device for multi charged particle beams includes a first substrate, in which plural first openings are formed in an array, to form multi-beams, a second substrate in which plural second openings are formed in an array, where a corresponding beam of the multi-beams passes through each of the plural second openings, plural control electrodes, which are on the second substrate and each of which is close to a corresponding one of the plural second openings and arranged not to be directly exposed to other second opening adjacent to the corresponding one of the plural second openings, to be switchably applied with first and second potentials, plural counter electrodes, each of which is facing a corresponding one of the plural control electrodes, to be applied with the second potential, and a shield film provided between the first substrate and the plural control electrodes.

A method for operating a multi-beam particle optical unit comprises includes providing a first setting of effects of particle-optical components, wherein a particle-optical imaging is characterizable by at least two parameters. The method also includes determining a matrix A, and determining a matrix S. The method further includes defining values of parameters which characterize a desired imaging, and providing a second setting of the effects of the components in such a way that the particle-optical imaging is characterizable by the parameters having the defined values.

A field emission device comprises one or more emitter elements, each having a high aspect ratio structure with a nanometer scaled cross section; and one or more segmented electrodes, each surrounding one of the one or more emitters. Each of the one or more segmented electrodes has multiple electrode plates. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Provided is an assembly for inspecting the surface of a sample. The assembly includes two or more multi-beam electron column units. Each unit has: a single thermal field emitter for emitting a diverging electron beam towards a beam splitter; wherein the beam splitter includes a first multi-aperture plate having multiple apertures for creating multiple primary electron beams; a collimator lens for collimating the diverging electron beam from the emitter; an objective lens unit for focusing said multiple primary electron beams on said sample; and a multi-sensor detector system for separately detecting the intensity of secondary electron beams created by each one of said focused primary electron beams on said sample. The two or more multi-beam electron column units are arranged adjacent to each other for inspecting different parts of the surface of the sample at the same time.

Disclosed is a method of diagnosing a conversion process for converting a format of image data including unit data corresponding to charged particle beams into a format suitable for an aperture array, the aperture array having a plurality of controllers provided to match a plurality of the charged particle beams to control the charged particle beams, and a driver configured to drive the controllers. The method includes: extracting the unit data having an identical first rank based on an arrangement of the unit data in the image data from the unit data of each block including a predetermined number of the unit data and calculating a first checksum of each of the first rank; extracting the unit data having an identical second rank after the conversion process from the unit data of each block and calculating a second checksum of each of the second rank; and comparing the first and second checksums.

To form a complex and fine pattern by combining optical exposure technology and charged particle beam exposure technology, provided is an exposure apparatus that radiates a charged particle beam at a position corresponding to a line pattern on a sample, including a beam generating section that generates a plurality of the charged particle beams at different irradiation positions in a width direction of the line pattern; a scanning control section that performs scanning with the irradiation positions of the charged particle beams along a longitudinal direction of the line pattern; a selecting section that selects at least one charged particle beam to irradiate the sample from among the plurality of charged particle beams, at a designated irradiation position in the longitudinal direction of the line pattern; and an irradiation control section that controls the at least one selected charged particle beam to irradiate the sample.

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.

A lens element of a charged particle system comprises an electrode having a central opening. The lens element is configured for functionally cooperating with an aperture array that is located directly adjacent said electrode, wherein the aperture array is configured for blocking part of a charged particle beam passing through the central opening of said electrode. The electrode is configured to operate at a first electric potential and the aperture array is configured to operate at a second electric potential different from the first electric potential. The electrode and the aperture array together form an aberration correcting lens.

A multi-electron beam writing apparatus includes a light source array to include plural light sources and generate plural first lights, a multi-lens array to include plural first lenses, and to divide the plural first lights into plural second lights by that each of the plural first lights illuminates a corresponding lens set of plural lens sets each composed of plural second lenses being a portion of the plural first lenses and by that each of lenses, being at least a part of the plural second lenses, is irradiated with two or more first lights of the plural first lights, a photoemissive surface to receive the plural second lights through its upper surface, and emit multiple photoelectron beams from its back surface, and a blanking aperture array mechanism to perform an individual blanking control by individually switching between ON and OFF of each of the multiple photoelectron beams.

Methods for exposing a desired shape in an area on a surface using a charged particle beam system include determining a local pattern density for the area of the desired shape based on an original set of exposure information. A backscatter for a sub area is calculated, based on the original set of exposure information. Dosage for at least one pixel in a plurality of pixels in the sub area is increased, in a location where the backscatter of the sub area is below a pre-determined threshold, thereby increasing the backscatter of the sub area. A pre-PEC maximum dose is determined for the local pattern density, based on a pre-determined target post-PEC maximum dose. The original set of exposure information is modified with the pre-PEC maximum dose and the increased dosage of the at least one pixel in the sub area to create a modified set of exposure information.