A chamber for exposing a workpiece to charged particles includes a charged particle source for generating a stream of charged particles, a collimator configured to collimate and direct the stream of charged particles from the charged particle source along an axis, a beam digitizer downstream of the collimator configured to create a digital beam including groups of at least one charged particle by adjusting longitudinal spacing between the charged particles along the axis, a deflector downstream of the beam digitizer including a series of deflection stages disposed longitudinally along the axis to deflect the digital beams, and a workpiece stage downstream of the deflector configured to hold the workpiece.

Apparatus and method for controlled particle beam manufacturing

An electron beam pattern generating system for exposing a pattern on a substrate using a raster scan method. The system stores a rasterized representation of the pattern as a plurality of regular pixel dose exposure levels. These pixel dose exposure levels are evaluated by the system for one or more proximity effects and corrections to the dose exposure level and/or pixel location are calculated. The system includes apparatus for both calculation and storage of intermediate and final results as required. As they are calculated, the corrections are provided to an exposure dose modulator wherein they are applied to forming the pattern. Thus corrections for both long range and short range proximity effects due to both electron scattering and heating as well as for proximity effects due to global thermal expansion can be calculated and provided during run-time and a corrected pattern exposed.

Method and apparatus for run-time correction of proximity effects in pattern generation

A method and device for analyzing positions are disclosed. In sensing information, at least one position is determined according to a first characteristic of a touch related sensing information. The sensing information also has a touch related sensing information with a second characteristic, which is opposite to the first characteristic. The touch related sensing information with the second characteristic is neglected or filtered. In addition, another method and device for analyzing positions are disclosed. An AC signal is provided through a pen, and a first characteristic of a touch related sensing information corresponding to a finger is opposite to the second characteristic of the touch related sensing information corresponding to the pen. The first characteristic and the second characteristic can be used to distinguish the touch of the finger from the touch of the pen or for palm rejection.

Method and device for analyzing positions

A system for processing wafers in a vacuum processing chamber. Carrier comprising a frame having a plurality of openings, each opening configured to accommodate one wafer. A transport mechanism configured to transport the plurality of carriers throughout the system. A plurality of wafer plates configured for supporting wafers. An attachment mechanism for attaching a plurality of wafer plates to each of the carriers, wherein each of the wafer plates is attached to a corresponding position at an underside of a corresponding carrier, such that each of the wafers positioned on one of the wafer carriers is positioned within one of the plurality of opening in the carrier. Mask attached over front side of one of the plurality of opening in the carrier. Alignment stage supports wafer plate under the opening in the carrier. A camera positioned to simultaneously image the mask and the wafer.

Wafer plate and mask arrangement for substrate fabrication

Device for the automatic transport of disk shaped objects from a discharge cassette adjustable in height through a position adjusting station to an inspection table and further into depository cassettes which are also adjustable in height in a step-wise manner According to the invention, between the discharge cassette and the position adjusting station a linearly displaceable transport arm gripping the disk shaped objects eccentrically and between the position adjusting station and the inspection table a pivoting lever again gripping the disk shaped objects eccentrically, and within the working range of the pivoting lever additionally on a rotating plate a slide displaceable to and from in the radial direction and gripping the disk shaped objects eccentrically, are provided and the depository cassettes are arranged with their orifices at the circumference of the rotating disk

Device for automatically transporting disk shaped objects

A square-shaped electron beam is stepped from one predetermined position to another to form a desired pattern on each chip of a semiconductor wafer to which the beam is applied. For each chip to which the beam is applied, the position of the chip relative to a predetermined position is determined and the distance in these positions is utilized to control the position of the electron beam to insure that the desired pattern is formed on each of the chips separately. Furthermore, the position of the beam is periodically checked against a calibration grid to ascertain any deviations in the beam from its initial position. These differences are applied to properly position the beam.

Method and apparatus for controlling an electron beam

Method and apparatus for positioning objects in preselected orientations

In electron beam apparatus having a souce of electrons and a target area toward which the electrons are directed, electron beam forming means are provided along the path from the source to the target. These forming means include a first beam shaping member having a first spot shaping aperture therein, a second beam shaping member having a second spot shaping aperture therein, and means focusing the image of the first aperture in the plane of the second aperture to thereby form a composite spot shape defined by the image of the first aperture and the second aperture. Further means are provided for focusing the image of the composite spot in the target area. Preferably, the apertures are square shaped. Thus, by varying the position of the superimposed image of the first aperture with respect to the second aperture, a wide variety of rectangular shaped composite spots with different dimensions is obtainable. This permits the exposure of rectilinear patterns, e.g., in photoresists of integrated circuit fabrication, by the electron beam with a minimum of exposure steps and substantially no exposure overlap. The result is greatly increased speed in the total exposure of such rectilinear areas to the electron beam as well as a minimum of the "blooming effects" produced by exposure overlap.

Method and apparatus for forming a variable size electron beam

A pattern is aligned and exposed with a lithography system so that chips larger than the deflection field can be formed by exposing M×N fields in a mosaic pattern. The method corrects the deflection field to compensate for the orientation of a previous pattern on a substrate and compensates for errors due to height caused by the beam landing non perpendicular to the target. Two basic procedures disclosed are called "3-mark" which are only applicable to 2×2 arrays of fields, and "M×N" which covers the general situation, but with slightly less accuracy.

Registration of patterns formed of multiple fields

A square-shaped beam of charged particles is passed over a registration mark, which is formed by a depression or a rise in the surface of a semiconductor wafer. When the beam passes over one edge of the mark, a positive peak signal is produced from a pair of diode detectors located with their surfaces orthogonal to the direction of the beam scan and a negative peak signal is produced when the beam passes over the other edge of the mark. The amplitudes of these peak signals are balanced so that they are substantially the same irrespective of the location of each of the diode detectors relative to the mark in comparison with the location of the other of the diode detectors relative to the mark. These peak signals are compared with positive and negative threshold signals in comparators with an output signal being produced from each of the comparators when its threshold signal is crossed. This enables location of each of the marks to be determined. The positive and negative threshold signals are set during the prior scan with the scans being in opposite directions. The peak to peak amplitude across the registration mark in a particular area is sampled during the first scan and used to provide an automatic gain factor for the remainder of the scans across the mark so that a substantially constant peak amplitude signal is transmitted to the comparators.

Edward V. Weber

Papers

Method and apparatus for controlling an electron beam

Method and apparatus for positioning objects in preselected orientations

Method and apparatus for forming a variable size electron beam

Registration of patterns formed of multiple fields

Method and apparatus for detecting a registration mark on a target such as a semiconductor wafer