Electron beam writing system

摘要

A blanking array is used for controlling an electron beam in an electron beam writing system. Electrodes in the array are formed in parallel and two sets of the parallel electrodes, orthogonal to one another, are used for dividing the electron beam into a plurality of individual exposure areas. The sets of parallel electrodes can be formed in one array by a wire mesh or in two separate arrays spaced closely together or farther apart at different focal point positions. The electrodes are provided to extend across an aperture, such as a square or triangular aperture. For a triangular aperture, the electrodes are made parallel to the hypotenuse of the triangle. The writing patterns are formed by combining the exposure areas. Control of each exposure area is realized by applying opposite polarity voltage to adjacent electrodes in order to deflect the portion of the beam passing between the adjacent electrodes. The deflected beam portions are blocked by a downstream aperture that permits the non-deflected electron beam portions to pass through for forming the patterns to be written.