Maskless lithography using low-energy electron beam: Recent results for proof-of-concept system

In order to realize a system on a chip fabrication at low cost with quick turn-around-time, we have proposed a maskless lithography strategy, a low-energy electron-beam direct writing (LEEBDW) system with a common character projection (CP) aperture. This article presents a status report on our proof-of-concept (POC) system. We have developed a compact EB column consisting of small electrostatic lenses and deflectors. The experimental results for our POC system indicated that the patterns corresponding to 50-nm-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 scanning electron microscope function of LEEBDW system is also reported.