EBM-5000: electron-beam mask writer for 45-nm node

EBM-5000 equipped with the new feature of high current density (50A/cm2) has been developed for 45 nm technology node (half pitch (hp) 65 nm). EBM-5000 adopts 50 kV variable shaped electron beam (VSB)/vector scan architecture and continuous motion stage, following the steps of preceding EBM series. In addition to the high current density, new technologies such as high resolution electron optics, finer increment for beam position and exposure time control, and new data format "VSB-12" to handle large data volume have been introduced on EBM-5000. These new technologies address two conflicting issues: improvement of throughput and better accuracy. This paper will report the key challenging technologies, certain results of EBM-5000 operation and findings obtained through our development efforts that can be applied to future generation tools. The fundamental local CD uniformity (LCDU) limit is also discussed.