Maskless lithography: a low-energy electron-beam direct writing system with a common CP aperture and the recent progress

In order to realize SoC (System on a Chip) fabrication at low cost with quick-TAT (Turn-Around-Time) we have proposed a maskless lithography (ML2) strategy, a low-energy electron-beam direct writing (LEEBDW) system with a common character projection (CP) aperture. This paper presents a status report on our proof-of-concept (POC) system. We have developed a compact EB column consisting small electrostatic lenses and deflectors. The experimental results for our POC system indicated that the patterns corresponding to 50nm-node logic devices can be obtained with CP exposure at the incident energy of 5 keV. The technique to reduce the raw process time using a SEM function of LEEBDW system is also reported.