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. The BAA also includes a second column of openings along the first direction and staggered from the first column of openings. 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 conductive polymer composition including: (A) -conjugated conductive polymer having at least one repeating unit shown by the following general formulae (1-1), (1-2), and (1-3); (B) a dopant polymer which contains a repeating unit a shown by the following general formula (2) and has a weight-average molecular weight in a range of 1,000 to 500,000; and (C) an amphoteric ion compound shown by the following general formula (3). This provides a conductive polymer composition having good filterability, coating property and film-formability onto a substrate to form a conductive film with good film quality and peelability with H.sub.2O or an alkaline developer; and forming a conductive film which reveals antistatic performance with high charge discharging ability and does not affect an influence of acid on the adjoined layer to be contact with. ##STR00001##

Lithographic apparatuses suitable for, and methodologies involving, complementary e-beam lithography (CEBL) are described. In an example, a method of real-time alignment of a wafer situated on a stage of an e-beam tool involves collecting backscattered electrons from an underlying patterned feature of the wafer while an e-beam column of the e-beam tool writes during scanning of the stage. The collecting is performed by an electron detector placed at the e-beam column bottom. The method also involves performing linear corrections of an alignment of the stage relative to the e-beam column based on the collecting.

Lithographic apparatuses suitable for, and methodologies involving, complementary e-beam lithography (CEBL) are described. In an example, a column for an e-beam direct write lithography tool includes a first blanker aperture array (BAA) including a staggered array of openings having a pitch along an array direction. The array direction is orthogonal to a scan direction. Each opening has a first dimension in the array direction. The column also includes a second BAA including a staggered array of openings having the pitch along the array direction. Each opening has a second dimension in the array direction, the second dimension greater than the first dimension.

The present disclosure provides an integrated circuit (IC) method in accordance with some embodiments. The method includes building a mask model to simulate a mask image and a compound lithography computational model to simulate a wafer pattern; calibrating the mask model using a measured mask image; calibrating the compound lithography computational model using a measured wafer data and the calibrated mask model; and performing an optical proximity correction (OPC) process to an IC pattern using the calibrated compound computational model, thereby generating a mask pattern for mask fabrication.

Lithographic apparatuses suitable for, and methodologies involving, complementary e-beam lithography (CEBL) are described. In an example, a method of fine alignment of an e-beam tool includes projecting an electron image of a plurality of apertures of an e-beam column over an X-direction alignment feature of a wafer while moving the wafer along the Y-direction. The method also includes detecting a time-resolved back-scattered electron (BSE) detection response waveform during the projecting. The method also includes determining an X-position of every edge of every feature of the X-direction alignment feature by calculating a derivative of the BSE detection response waveform. The method also includes, subsequent to determining an X-position of every edge of every feature of the X-direction alignment feature, adjusting an alignment of the e-beam column to the wafer.

A compound semiconductor device disclosed herein includes a substrate, an electron transit layer formed on the substrate, a compound semiconductor layer containing gallium and formed on the electron transit layer, a diffusion preventing layer containing gallium oxide and formed on the compound semiconductor layer, an insulation layer formed on the diffusion preventing layer, and a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode formed over the electron transit layer at a distance from one another.

Techniques are disclosed for forming a compacted array of functional cells using next-generation lithography (NGL) processes, such as electron-beam direct write (EBDW) and extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL), to form the boundaries of the cells in the array. The compacted array of cells may be used for field-programmable gate array (FPGA) structures configured with logic cells, static random-access memory (SRAM) structures configured with bit cells, or other memory or logic devices having cell-based structures. The techniques can be used to gain a reduction in area of 10 to 50 percent, for example, for the array of functional cells, because the NGL processes allow for higher precision and closer cuts for the cell boundaries, as compared to conventional 193 nm photolithography. In addition, the use of NGL processes to form the boundaries for the cells may also reduce lithography induced variations that would otherwise be present with conventional 193 nm photolithography.

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. The BAA also includes a second column of openings along the first direction and staggered from the first column of openings. 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.

Lithographic apparatuses suitable for, and methodologies involving, complementary e-beam lithography (CEBL) are described. In an example, a column for an e-beam direct write lithography tool includes a first blanker aperture array (BAA) including a staggered array of openings having a pitch along an array direction. The array direction is orthogonal to a scan direction. Each opening has a first dimension in the array direction. The column also includes a second BAA including a staggered array of openings having the pitch along the array direction. Each opening has a second dimension in the array direction, the second dimension greater than the first dimension.