Abstract: In the case of drawing an oblique figure pattern, when drawing an oblique figure by using a slender rectangular beam, a problem occurs that edge roughness occurs at an oblique-side portion to deteriorate the drawing accuracy. The present invention solves the above problem and provides an electron-beam drawing apparatus and an electron-beam drawing method capable of accurately drawing even an oblique figure. A first rectangular aperture and a second parallelogrammatic aperture are used and a variable parallelogrammatic electron beam formed by two apertures is used to draw a desired pattern on the surface of a sample. Moreover, oblique-side-portion-contour decomposition means is used to draw an oblique-side portion by a variable parallelogram and the inside of an oblique side by a triangle and a quadrangle (rectangle).

Abstract: A multi-electron beam exposure method and apparatus, wherein electron beams are applied to a sample surface mounted on a traveling sample stage to perform repeated exposure of chip patterns. An exposure region of the sample surface is partitioned into multiple stripe regions having a width in an x-axis direction, and each of the multiple stripe regions is further partitioned into multiple main fields having a width in a y-axis direction. At least one of the widths of the main fields in the x- and y-axis directions is set to a value, and exposure pattern data for one chip based on the partitioned main fields is stored as a unit. The stored exposure pattern data is readout a number of times corresponding to the number of chips repeatedly, and each electron beam provides repeated exposure of same regions of the chips.

Abstract: In the present invention, vector data developing unit, ends separating unit, overlap removing unit and bitmapped data generating unit are sequentially connected in order to make pipeline processing. In addition, data of each raster is orderly arranged as a unit so that each processor can process data of each raster at a time. Each processor can make the pipeline processing to fast generate data. In addition, small-scale circuits can be used to realize the system because each raster can be processed as a unit of processing. Moreover, since data is orderly arranged before being processed, multi-valued bitmapped data can be generated in the order of drawing. Therefore, the drawing operation and data generating operation can be performed in parallel without use of any large-scale storage device.

Abstract: A charged particle beam exposure apparatus which exposes a substrate using a plurality of charged particle beams includes a first measurement member for making the plurality of charged particle beams come incident and measuring a total current value of the charged particle beams. A second measurement member makes the plurality of charged particle beams come incident and multiplies electrons of each of the incident charged particle beams, thereby measuring a relative value of a current of each of the charged particle beams.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to obtain an image which is focused on all portions of a sample and to provide a charged particle beam apparatus capable of obtaining a two-dimensional image which has no blurred part over an entire sample. In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises means for changing a focus condition of a charged particle beam emitted from a charged particle source, a charged particle detector for detecting charged particles irradiated from a surface portion of said sample in response to the emitted charged particle beam, and means for composing a two-dimensional image of the surface portion of the sample based on signals on which said charged particle beam is focused, said signals being among signals output from the charged particle detector.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to obtain an image which is focused on all portions of a sample and to provide a charged particle beam apparatus capable of obtaining a two-dimensional image which has no blurred part over an entire sample. In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises means for changing a focus condition of a charged particle beam emitted from a charged particle source, a charged particle detector for detecting charged particles [obtained at] irradiated from a surface portion of said sample [irradiated with] in response to the emitted charged particle beam, and means for composing a two-dimensional image of the surface portion of the sample [as viewed from a direction of said charged particle beam source,] based on signals on which said charged particle beam is focused, said signals being among signals output from the charged particle detector.

Abstract: An electron beam exposure apparatus for exposing a wafer by an electron beam incorporates a circuit structure for conducting a scan test to self-diagnose the electrical connections. The electron beam exposure apparatus includes: an electron beam generating section for generating the electron beam; a plurality of deflectors for deflecting the corresponding electron beams; a deflection control section for outputting a deflection control signal for causing the deflector to deflect the electron beam; and a control signal storage section for storing a value of the deflection control signal output from the deflection control section. The control signal storage section connects the plurality of deflectors in series when conducting the scan test. The control signal storage section and the deflector may be monolithically integrated on a semiconductor substrate.

Abstract: An electron beam exposure apparatus for controlling deflection timing of an electron beam with high precision, including: a blanking-electrode array having a deflecting electrode for deflecting an electron beam; a deflection timing control section for outputting the control signal for controlling the blanking-electrode array; a load circuit, of which the impedance is the same as that of the blanking-electrode array, where the wire length between the deflection timing control section and the load circuit is shorter than the wire length between the deflection timing control section and the deflecting electrode of the blanking-electrode array; and a switching section, connecting with the deflection timing control section, the blanking-electrode array, and the load circuit, for switching the destination of the control signal output from the deflection timing control section between the blanking-electrode array and the load circuit.

Abstract: An apparatus for calculating a normalized correlation coefficient used as a similarity evaluation measure by using image data values of pixels in a template image and image data values of pixels in a subimage, included in a search image, corresponding to the template image, has a memory that stores image data values of pixels in the search image and calculating means that calculate a sum of image data values of pixels in the template image and a sum of image data values of pixels in the first rectangular region in the search image or a sum of squares of image data values of pixels in the template image and a sum of squares of image data values of pixels in the first rectangular region in the search image.

Abstract: Disclosed is equipment for charged-particle beam lithography capable of executing exposure even when an electron beam with a bad property is produced due to a failure in some multibeam forming element, without replacing the failing multibeam forming element and without reducing the exposure accuracy. The equipment includes means for forming a plurality of charged-particle beams arranged at predetermined intervals; a plurality of blankers which act on the plurality of charged-particle beams individually; a common blanker which acts on all of the plurality of charged-particle beams; and a blanking restriction for causing those charged-particle beams which are given predetermined deflection by the plurality of blankers to reach onto a sample, with a signal applied to the common blanker, and blocking those charged-particle beams which are not given the predetermined deflection by the plurality of blankers to the sample.

Abstract: An electron beam exposure apparatus which exposes a wafer (118) by using a plurality of electron beams corrects the positional error of the electron beams by using multi-deflector arrays (105, 106) capable of independently deflecting the positions of the electron beams, and pattern data to be projected onto the wafer (118). More specifically, when each of the electron beams is deflected to a predetermined exposure position on the basis of the pattern data, a static positional error independent of the deflection position is corrected by the multi-deflector arrays (105, 106), and a dynamic positional error depending on the deflection position is corrected on the basis of the pattern data.

Abstract: A charged particle beam exposure apparatus which exposes a substrate using a plurality of charged particle beams comprises a first measurement member for making the plurality of charged particle beams come incident and measuring a total current value of the charged particle beams, and a second measurement member for making the plurality of charged particle beams come incident and multiplying electrons of each of the incident charged particle beams, thereby measuring a relative value of a current of each of the charged particle beams.

Abstract: In a charged particle beam exposure method of applying/not applying charged particle beams to expose a substrate by deflecting the charged particle beams to move the charged particle beams on a blanking aperture stop, the size of the charged particle beams on the blanking aperture stop is made larger than the size of the blanking aperture stop.

Abstract: A charged particle beam drawing apparatus and a pattern forming method capable of drawing fine patterns while minimizing the proximity effect, thus overcoming the drawbacks of the conventional exposure area density correcting method and supplementary exposure method. The inventive method comprises the steps of performing supplementary exposure by irradiating a drawing area on a specimen with a charged particle beam, and performing main exposure by irradiating with the charged particle beam a region made up of the drawing pattern inside the drawing area on the specimen.

Abstract: An object of this invention is to provide an electron beam lithography system capable of rapidly creating an accurate exposure map for proximity effect correction. The inventive system creates the map by dividing shot figures by mesh and adding up the divided area values for each mesh. The system comprises: (1) a function for judging and dividing boundaries of shots to be rendered based on mesh positions as well as shot positions and figures in the map, and (2) a function for calculating divided shot area values and adding the values simultaneously to adjacent addresses in cumulative fashion in a plurality of memories furnished downstream of the system.

Abstract: An electron beam exposure apparatus which exposes a wafer (118) by using a plurality of electron beams corrects the positional error of the electron beams by using multi-deflector arrays (105, 106) capable of independently deflecting the positions of the electron beams, and pattern data to be projected onto the wafer (118). More specifically, when each of the electron beams is deflected to a predetermined exposure position on the basis of the pattern data, a static positional error independent of the deflection position is corrected by the multi-deflector arrays (105, 106), and a dynamic positional error depending on the deflection position is corrected on the basis of the pattern data.

Abstract: In the case of drawing an oblique figure pattern, when drawing an oblique figure by using a slender rectangular beam, a problem occurs that edge roughness occurs at an oblique-side portion to deteriorate the drawing accuracy. The present invention solves the above problem and provides an electron-beam drawing apparatus and an electron-beam drawing method capable of accurately drawing even an oblique figure.

Abstract: The dimension of the main field as a unit region for exposure is set to an integral submultiple of the arrangement pitch of the LSI to be exposed, by the control computer 62, and the exposure data stored in the form associated with electron beams from a data generation circuit 64 is limited to one-chip data alone in units of a stripe. This data is repeatedly read out to write the stripe. Further, a storage circuit 66 is provided to store the exposure data by means of a double buffer memory unit for each electron beam. While LSI is written according to one of the buffers, the next exposure stripe data is prepared on the other buffer, thereby bringing about a substantial reduction in the required speed of the exposure data generation circuit.

Abstract: A plurality of circuit patterns are written by a small number of charged particle beams with a high dimension controllability without using a mask. A desired charge quantity is irradiated on a desired point on a sample by performing irradiation on a charged particle beam section in a superposing manner in order to obtain a predetermined exposure intensity by the charged particle beams constituting a plurality of charged particle beam groups. In addition, the charged particle beams are used, in which current quantities of a plurality of the charged particle beams are made to have a weighted gradation, the desired charged quantity is irradiated, and thus a desired exposure dimension is obtained.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to obtain an image which is focused on all portions of a sample and to provide a charged particle beam apparatus capable of obtaining a two-dimensional image which has no blurred part over an entire sample. In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises means for changing a focus of a charged particle beam emitted from a charged particle source, a charged particle detector for detecting charged particles obtained at a portion of said sample irradiated with the charged particle beam, and means for composing a two-dimensional image of the sample as viewed from a direction of said charged particle beam source, based on signals on which said charged particle beam is focused, said signals being among signals output from the charged particle detector.