An Approach to a High-Throughput E-Beam Writer with a Single-Gun Multiple-Path System

This paper proposes a new electron optical system with a single-gun and multiple-paths for a high-throughput e-beam writer. By employing a high-performance gun and key components made on a semiconductor fabrication process the proposed system reduces both the Coulomb interaction and circuit overhead time. A newly developed thermal field emission gun is also described. Its performance was experimentally confirmed to be suitable for the proposed system. Using a ray tracing program the effective crossover of this gun was estimated to be only about a quarter of the conventional value, which simplifies the task of implementing the electron optical system. The results presented here demonstrate that the proposed system is the most promising approach to developing a high-throughput e-beam writer to meet future needs.