Characteristics and applications of multiple beam machines

Several multiple electron- and ion-beam machines have been developed at SRI in the last decade. These microfabrication tools use multiple focused electron or ion beams that are deflected, blanked in synchrony, and used to lithograph or etch a whole wafer instead of a single chip. Such machines can reduce the processing time for a wafer and thus increase the throughput. This class of machine has several interesting characteristics. The depth of focus is of the order of 1 cm, the beams are focused on the target in first order and the magnification can be changed easily. These characteristics make these machines quite useful for different microfabrication processes such as lithography, mask making, etching, and micromechanics.