LOW-ENERGY-ELECTRON BEAM LITHOGRAPHY WITH 30-NM RESOLUTION

Electron beam lithography (EBL) With a low accelerating voltage (appro ximately 2 kV) was utilized for the fabrication of nanostructures. A r esolution of 30 nm was achieved for both sparse and dense lines. The h igh resolution resulted from the low aberrations of the electron optic s system of the field emission scanning electron microscope used as an EBL machine and from the preferred small-angle forward scattering cha racteristic of the low-energy exposing electrons. By comparison with 5 0 kV EBL, we show a large reduction in the proximity effect and demons trate a 60 nm spacing between two large exposed areas. Moreover, it is shown that the critical dose at 2 kV is more than an order of magnitu de less than that at 50 kV exposures.