ELECTRON AND ION-OPTICAL DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT

This article describes methods for the computer aided design of electr on and ion beam columns for the integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing industry. The techniques described include computation of field distri butions in electron lenses and deflectors, electron trajectories and a berrations, dynamic corrections, effects of discrete Coulomb interacti ons, design of electron guns, treatment of diffraction effects, optimi zation, and tolerancing of complete columns. These techniques are illu strated with examples relevant to the IC manufacturing industry, inclu ding systems for high-throughput electron beam lithography, nanolithog raphy systems, and electron beam systems for inspection, metrology, an d voltage testing. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Society.