High Throughput/High Resolution Particle Beam System

1. Field of Invention

This invention relates to particle beam systems used in the fabrication of micro-miniature devices (integrated circuits) and is particularly directed to a new and improved apparatus and writing technique for a particle beam lithography system.

2. Prior Art

Lithographic systems utilizing a controllable electron beam for the fabrication of master masks for making integrated circuits is old in the art; one such system is described at length in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,737 to Collier, et al. An apparatus for controlling an electron beam by a magnetic deflection system for use in the Collier, et al., system is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,801,792 to Lin.

In the Collier patent, and utilizing an apparatus as described in the Lin patent, the mask medium (resist material) upon which the electron beam is to perform its writing operation, was positioned on a motor driven stage which moved continuously and in synchronism as the beam is scanned in raster fashion in a direction perpendicular to the stage motion.

FIG. 1 herein illustrates a writing operation in an electron beam apparatus similar to the writing operation taught in the Collier patent. As shown in the Figure, the arrow X represents the movement of the stage 12 and the Y arrow represents the movement of the electron beam in a raster scan fashion by a magnetic deflection system. In this prior art embodiment, there are 512 addresses in the Y direction and 16K addresses in the X direction; an address being defined as the diameter of the electron beam spot on the medium. The circles 14 in FIG. 1 represent electron beam spots on the resist 16 and to illustrate the effect of the modulation of the electron beam certain of the spots are shown blank while others are shown solid. Modulation in the Collier, et al., apparatus occurred at the rate of 10 MHz with four rows of addresses defining a 2.0 micrometer feature width and 512 addresses defining a stripe width of 128 micrometers utilizing an address of 0.5 micrometers. There is a requirement for smaller geometry and address structure electron beam generated masks. However, when the address structure is reduced, the mask making throughput is decreased proportional to the square of the address size. At this same time, the stage speed and deflection length of the beam are both reduced by the same factor as the address reduction.

Thus, if the electron beam is decreased below the 0.5 micrometer address, such as used in the Collier, et al apparatus, as for example to a 0.25 micrometer address, the mask making throughput utilizing the raster scan writing technique of Collier, et al., will be reduced by one-fourth.

It is therefore a primary object of this invention in the art of particle beam lithography to provide higher throughput of mask writing at addresses smaller than 0.5 micrometer yet maintaining the writing output approximately equal to the currently existing 0.5 micrometer throughput.

It is also an object of this invention to maintain the currently existing throughput without major revamping of the current stage hardware of a particle beam apparatus.

In order to accomplish the foregoing object, the normal, i.e., that of Collier, et al., stage speed and deflection length are maintained but an additional electrostatic deflection system located at the appropriate location in the beam column is added to sweep the beam in a small serpentine path in synchronism with the normal Y scan.

As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, upon a study of the drawings and the following detailed description that an effective 80 MHz or higher writing rate at a 0.25 micrometer address or smaller is thus achievable.

FIG. 1 illustrates the prior art writing technique,

FIGS. 2 and 2A illustrate the writing technique in accordance with the teachings of this invention, FIG. 2A being an enlargement of a portion of FIG. 2 for clarity,

FIG. 3 illustrates the apparatus in which the foregoing writing technique may be performed, and

FIG. 4 illustrates schematically the deflection plates and voltage applied thereto for performing the writing technique in the apparatus of FIG. 3.

Turning now to FIGS. 2 and 2A (since FIG. 1 was discussed supra), it can be seen that the arrow identified as X represents the travel of the stage 12 and the arrow identified as Y represents the direction of travel of the particle beam in a particle beam lithographic system indicated in its entirety as 30 (FIGS. 3 and 4).

In this embodiment, like the prior art discussed above, there are 16K addresses in the X direction, although the stripe length could be longer, and 512 to 1,044 addresses in the Y direction to define a stripe. Again, the size of the address is represented by blank and solid circles 14A on a radiation sensitive resist layer 16 located on the stage 12; the blank and solid circles representing the modulation of the intensity of the particle beam in accordance with a specified pattern. These spots have 0.25 address size. Since only the size of the spots differ from those of the prior art, they were given the same reference numerals in FIGS. 2 and 2A as in FIG. 1 except for the suffix A to denote this size difference.

As can be seen in FIG. 2A, specifically, which is an enlarged version, for clarity, of part of FIG. 2, the 0.25 address, in addition to being moved in the X direction by the stage, is scanned in the Y direction in a serpentine path represented by the arrow 22 over four spots to thus define a feature width 1.0 micrometer. The serpentine path is formed by starting a spot 14A-1 and travelling against the direction of the stage travel defines a column ending at spot 14A-4. Thereafter the beam is moved in the Y direction to the next contiguous spot 14A-5 and then, travelling in the same direction as the stage, arrives at spot 14A-8. At this point the beam is again moved in the Y direction to form the next contiguous spot 14A-9 and again against the travel of the stage to spot 14A-12. This path of travel continues until it reaches a stripe width defined by the 512 or 1,044 address.

In FIG. 4 there is shown the particle beam lithographic system 30 for the above writing technique which comprises a particle or electron source 32, a beam blanking unit 34 for providing the intensity modulation of the beam (the blank and dark spots 14A referred to above), a beam deflection unit 36, a work chamber 38 containing the stage 12 and a means 40 for determining the registration of the beam at the proper coordinates. The beam deflection unit 36 differs from the prior art deflection unit, such as the magnetic deflection unit shown in the Collier, et al., patent or in the Lin patent, by an additional electrostatic deflection unit 42 located above, i.e., prior to the magnetic deflection means, to which are applied suitable scan voltages synchronized to the writing clock of the system as shown in FIG. 4. These deflection plates used to control the path of the particle beam to define the serpentine path described above are subjected to stepped voltages from conventional step voltage sources to provide a dwell time at each address in the serpentine path to avoid skewing of the path as it is formed.

From the foregoing it can be seen that there is disclosed a method and apparatus for making masks in the integrated circuit art where the particle beam irradiates a radiation sensitive resist layer on a flat wafer in the serpentine scanning technique to define lines on the layer having a preselected modulation pattern. The lines can form any selected pattern on the resist layer to define areas of identical patterns in a matrix form or otherwise in response to the processing electronics illustrated at 44 in FIG. 3. The process electronics may be conventional as taught, for example, in the Collier, et al., patent and the mask resist processed in the conventional manner.