Development of a massively parallel electron beam write (MPEBW) system: aiming for the digital fabrication of integrated circuits

A prototype of a massively parallel electron beam write (MPEBW) system has been developed for maskless (direct-write) lithography. A 100 x 100 array of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) electron emitters is controlled by an active matrix-driving large-scale integrated device. This device is designed so that arrayed electron beams are reduced by a factor of 100 using electron optics and focused onto the wafer as 10 nm square spots. The electron beam emitter array has an aberration correction function. A planar 10 mu m square nc-Si emitter array and the driving LSI device were fabricated and their operations were confirmed. A 17 x 17 nc-Si emitter array was assembled with driver circuits and used to perform active matrix electron beam exposure in a 1:1 exposure test system. A Pierce emitter array for the active matrix drive is the subject of the target commercial system. The operations of the Pierce emitter array were studied using basic prototyping and simulation.