In one embodiment, a writing data generation method is for generating writing data used by a multi-charged particle beam writing apparatus. The writing data generation method includes referring to library data in which a vertex sequence including a plurality of vertices is registered, and extracting a portion of an outer line of a figure contained in design data, the portion corresponding to the vertex sequence, and representing the extracted portion by information which identifies the vertex sequence and information which indicates a connection method for the plurality of vertices of the vertex sequence, and generating the writing data.

A method and system for providing at least one of planarization, densification, and exfoliation of a porous material using ion beams. The method may use an ion beam generator to generate an ion beam, the ion beam having energy above 0.1 MeV. The ion beam generator may irradiate the surface of a porous material with the ion beam to produce at least one of planarization, densification, and exfoliation of the porous material.

The present disclosure provides an ion implantation method and an ion implanter for realizing the ion implantation method. The above-mentioned ion implantation method comprises: providing a spot-shaped ion beam current implanted into the wafer; controlling the wafer to move back and forth in a first direction; controlling the spot-shaped ion beam current to scan back and forth in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and adjusting the scanning width of the spot-shaped ion beam current in the second direction according to the width of the portion of the wafer currently scanned by the spot-shaped ion beam current in the second direction. According to the ion implantation method provided by the present disclosure, the scanning path of the ion beam current is adjusted by changing the scanning width of the ion beam current, so that the beam scanning area is attached to the wafer, which greatly reduces the waste of the ion beam current, improves the effective ion beam current and increases productivity without increasing actual ion beam current.

A method for processing an object, with material being removed from the object, includes directing a particle beam on the object so that a location of incidence of the particle beam on the object carries out a movement along a principal scanning path and a movement along a sub-scanning direction oriented transverse to the principal scanning path. The movement of the location of incidence of the particle beam along the sub-scanning direction is controlled on the basis of a reference signal and a detection signal. The method also includes modulating the directing of the particle beam in accordance with the reference signal, and detecting secondary particles and producing the detection signal, which represents an intensity of the detected secondary particles. Controlling the movement of the location of incidence of the particle beam along the sub-scanning direction is implemented using the principle of homodyne detection.

A system and method for generating a plurality of scan profiles based on a desired implant pattern and the uniformity of the spot beam is disclosed. The system scans the spot beam and records the number of ions as a function of position. This is referred to as the linear uniformity array. The desired implant pattern and the linear uniformity array are then combined to generate a composite pattern array. This array contemplates the non-uniformity of the scanned beam and allows the system to create scan profiles that compensate for this. The software may be executed on the controller disposed in the implantation system, or may be executed on a different computing device.

A multiple charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a rotatable shaping aperture array substrate, including plural openings, to form/shape multiple beams by letting portions of a charged particle beam individually pass through the plural openings, a data rotation correction circuitry to read writing data from a storage device, and generate pattern data, in which the entire figure pattern has been reversely rotated against a rotational deviation direction of an aperture array image by a rotational deviation amount of the aperture array image, using information on the rotational deviation amount of the aperture array image of the multiple beams on the target object caused by a residual error of rotation adjustment of the shaping aperture array substrate, and a blanking aperture array mechanism, rotatable with the shaping aperture array substrate, to provide individual blanking control of the multiple beams, based on the pattern data of the figure pattern reversely rotated.

A method for processing an object, with material being removed from the object, includes directing a particle beam on the object so that a location of incidence of the particle beam on the object carries out a movement along a principal scanning path and a movement along a sub-scanning direction oriented transverse to the principal scanning path. The movement of the location of incidence of the particle beam along the sub-scanning direction is controlled on the basis of a reference signal and a detection signal. The method also includes modulating the directing of the particle beam in accordance with the reference signal, and detecting secondary particles and producing the detection signal, which represents an intensity of the detected secondary particles. Controlling the movement of the location of incidence of the particle beam along the sub-scanning direction is implemented using the principle of homodyne detection.

In one embodiment, a writing data generation method is for generating writing data used by a multi-charged particle beam writing apparatus. The writing data generation method includes referring to library data in which a vertex sequence including a plurality of vertices is registered, and extracting a portion of an outer line of a figure contained in design data, the portion corresponding to the vertex sequence, and representing the extracted portion by information which identifies the vertex sequence and information which indicates a connection method for the plurality of vertices of the vertex sequence, and generating the writing data.

A multi-beam charged particle system and a method of setting a working distance WD of the multi beam charged particle system are provided. With the method, the working distance is adjusted while the imaging performance of a wafer inspection task is maintained by computing parameter values of components from predetermined calibration parameter values. The method can allow a relatively fast wafer inspection task even with a wafer stage with a fixed z-position parallel to an optical axis of the multi-beam charged particle system.

An inspection device includes an emission unit of first charging particles. A deflection unit deflects the first charging particles to scan a surface of a target object with the first charging particles. A detection unit detects second charging particles generated from the surface of the target object receiving the first charging particles. An image generation unit generates an image of the surface of the target object based on a detection result of the second charging particles by the detection unit. A control unit controls a scan direction of the first charging particles. A calculation unit detects normal directions to a contour of an uneven portion on the surface of the target object in a first image obtained by scanning in a first scan direction. The calculation unit calculates a frequency of a first angle formed between a reference axis of the first image and a normal direction of each of a plurality of unit regions. The calculation unit determines the normal direction corresponding to a most frequent value of the first angle among the normal directions as a second scan direction. The calculation unit calculates a height of the uneven portion based on a second image obtained by scanning in the second scan direction.