Nikon electron beam projection lithography tool development summary

In the development of the electron beam projection lithography (EPL) tool, one of the most important tasks is to develop the high-speed vacuum stage system and reliable vacuum body system. Nikon has a long history of over 22 years in precision stage development for its optical lithography tools as well as over 10 years in electron beam (EB) instrument development such as EB 60 with NTT. Recently, lithography stages have been developed based on air bearing and linear motor technologies. It is desirable and of minimum risk to utilize those technologies for the EPL system in order to shorten total time period of development, but the requirements for the EB stage and body are much different from their optical counterparts and much more difficult. In this paper, development and implementation of the EPL vacuum stage system, vacuum body system, vacuum loader system, and control system are discussed and overviewed.