Maskless Lithography

Abstract

Image metrology system nanofabrication has developed a projection maskless lithography system with a magnification of 1/200 from the second blanking aperture onto an exposed sample plane. Pattern registration is necessary because no lithography instrument can write with perfect reproducibility. The motivation to develop a focused ion beam system for lithography was no requirement for proximity effect correction due to the much lower level of backscattered ions from the substrate. Deflection errors are often corrected dynamically in modern scanning lithography systems by characterizing the errors before exposure, using the laser interferometer as the calibration standard. The round-beam exposure system was designed and built primarily for mask making for optical lithography on a routine basis. A silicon stencil type can be also used as a mask for electron projection lithography as well as a character plate. Prototypes and related infrastructure have been developed in the past, but this research work has been discontinued.