| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| 6331711 |
Correction for systematic, low spatial frequency critical dimension variations in lithography |
December 18, 2001 |
| In scanning lithography as used in the semiconductor industry, systematic variations in critical dimension feature size which depend on the substrate coordinates are compensated for in a lithography tool. This is done by determining (experimentally or theoretically) low frequency var |
| 6326635 |
Minimization of electron fogging in electron beam lithography |
December 4, 2001 |
| A shield assembly for reducing electron fogging effects in electron beam lithography. This shield, located between an electron beam column final aperture and the beam target, is of multiple vanes with sharp edges pointing towards the electron beam incident point on the target; the vanes |
| 6315450 |
Diaphragm preload air bearing |
November 13, 2001 |
| A preload hydrostatic bearing includes a pad, a diaphragm and an adjustable member. The pad has a bearing structure, an inlet manifold, and a plurality of orifices. The orifices direct a fluid, such as air, from the inlet manifold toward the bearing surface. The diaphragm is mounted on t |
| 6300630 |
Annular differential seal for electron beam apparatus using isolation valve and additional diffe |
October 9, 2001 |
| A vacuum seal facilitates the production of a vacuum with a localized region on the surface of a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer or reticle, which is subject to electron beam lithography. The vacuum seal permits vacuum processing in a localized region while allowing the rema |
| 6297584 |
Precision alignment of microcolumn tip to a micron-size extractor aperture |
October 2, 2001 |
| A method and an accompanied apparatus for aligning an electron emitter with an extractor hole of a microcolumn. Four V-grooves, defined together with the window for forming the membrane and having bottoms situated on two axis are microfabricated on a chip. The axis intersect at a right a |
| 6295157 |
Thermally balanced acousto-optic modulator |
September 25, 2001 |
| An acousto-optic modulator for use with a multi-channel laser beam system, for instance, is of conventional structure except that two different RF (radio frequency) signals drive the modulator. These signals each produce at least one output beam as diffracted by the modulator body. These |
| 6288401 |
Electrostatic alignment of a charged particle beam |
September 11, 2001 |
| A field emission source produces a charged particle beam that can be electrostatically aligned with the optical axis. Quadrupole (or higher multipole) centering electrodes approximately centered on the optical axis are placed between the emitter and the extraction electrode. By applying |
| 6281508 |
Precision alignment and assembly of microlenses and microcolumns |
August 28, 2001 |
| A method and the associated apparatus for alignment and assembly of microlenses and microcolumns in which aligning structures such as rigid fibers are used to precisely align multiple microlens components. Alignment openings are formed in the microlens components and standard optical |
| 6279490 |
Epicyclic stage |
August 28, 2001 |
| A movable stage assembly suitable for use in a vacuum has three circular stages rotating independently of one another. The stage assembly includes a base and a large rotatable circular table mounted on the base. This large table has a second smaller circular table which is eccentrically |
| 6274290 |
Raster scan gaussian beam writing strategy and method for pattern generation |
August 14, 2001 |
| A hybrid exposure strategy for pattern generation uses wide field raster scan deflection and a uniformly moving stage to expose long stripes. Periodic analog wide field magnetic scan is augmented by a high speed electrostatic retrograde scan to keep the beam essentially stationary du |
| 6271514 |
Multi-beam scanner including a dove prism array |
August 7, 2001 |
| A precision printing system uses multiple scan beams that an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) separately modulates. An array of optical elements such as dove prisms separately rotates each of the beams about a central ray of the beam to eliminate blurred edges, skew, and variations in line |
| 6262429 |
Raster shaped beam, electron beam exposure strategy using a two dimensional multipixel flash fie |
July 17, 2001 |
| An electron beam column (or other charged particle beam column) for lithography which exposes a surface to variable shapes in a raster scan. The beam column includes an electron (or ion) source that generates a charged particle beam, a transfer lens, an upper aperture, an upper defle |
| 6259106 |
Apparatus and method for controlling a beam shape |
July 10, 2001 |
| A converter for lithography which generates signals that control a shaping of an electron (or other energy) beam and which includes a translator that translates shape data into shape and position signals, and translates duration information into a duration signal. The converter also incl |
| 6258491 |
Mask for high resolution optical lithography |
July 10, 2001 |
| An optical mask for high resolution optical lithography using short wavelength light, e.g., 157 nm, uses membranes of a material that is transparent to the desired wavelength. The thin membranes are held under tensile stress by a supporting structure, such as a silicon wafer. Because |
| 6246190 |
Integrated electron gun and electronics module |
June 12, 2001 |
| An electron gun assembly which integrates electronics required to power the electron gun and the electron gun itself in one module in a high voltage operating environment. The assembly has four major sections: interface cables; electronic circuits (active and high voltage); the electron |
| 6243209 |
Method and apparatus for providing rectangular shape array of light beams |
June 5, 2001 |
| A linear array of equal intensity optical beams is transformed into a rectangular array of equal intensity optical beams, while the intensity of each beam is kept nearly constant. The transformation is performed using an optical element which has two coatings on the front surface and a |
| 6220914 |
Method of forming gated photocathode for controlled single and multiple electron beam emission |
April 24, 2001 |
| A photocathode having a gate electrode so that modulation of the resulting electron beam is accomplished independently of the laser beam. The photocathode includes a transparent substrate, a photoemitter, and an electrically separate gate electrode surrounding an emission region of the |
| 6219146 |
Laser reflector alignment |
April 17, 2001 |
| A laser beam or other parallel light beam divides at a beamsplitter into sample and reference beams. The sample beam reflects from a reflective surface back to the beamsplitter, and the reference beam reflects from a retroreflector back to the beamsplitter. The beams are then directed in |
| 6215128 |
Compact photoemission source, field and objective lens arrangement for high throughput electron |
April 10, 2001 |
| An improved compact tandem photon and electron beam lithography system includes a field lens adjacent the photoemission source which is utilized in combination with an objective lens to minimize field aberrations in the usable emission pattern and minimize the interaction between electro |
| 6195214 |
Microcolumn assembly using laser spot welding |
February 27, 2001 |
| A method for forming microcolumns in which laser spot welding bonds the multiple layers of an electron beam microcolumn. A silicon microlens is laser spot welded to a glass insulation layer by focusing a laser through the insulation layer onto the silicon microlens. The glass layer is |
| 6171165 |
Precision alignment of microcolumn tip to a micron-size extractor aperture |
January 9, 2001 |
| A method and an accompanied apparatus for aligning an electron emitter with an extractor hole of a microcolumn. Four V-grooves, defined together with the window for forming the membrane and having bottoms situated on two axis are microfabricated on a chip. The axis intersect at a right a |
| 6107622 |
Chevron correction and autofocus optics for laser scanner |
August 22, 2000 |
| In a light raster scanning system imaging a medium located on a movable stage and using bidirectional scanning, i.e. scanning during stage movement in two opposing directions, the problem of chevron artifacts (angle errors), due to the different stage movement directions, is overcome |
| 6084706 |
High efficiency laser pattern generator |
July 4, 2000 |
| A laser scanner includes an optical relay which reforms an image from a scan lens at a location that provides additional working distance. The optical relay contains primarily reflective elements which provide achromatic focusing for ultraviolet light. One embodiment of the optical r |
| 6077417 |
Silicon microlens cleaning system |
June 20, 2000 |
| A method and system for cleaning the silicon microlenses in an electron-beam microcolumn in situ. The microlenses individually are heated by passing a current through each microlens. The current is utilized to heat the microlens to at least two hundred degrees Centigrade to prevent c |
| 6057921 |
Two piece mirror arrangement for interferometrically controlled stage |
May 2, 2000 |
| Two axes laser interferometers are well known for determining the XY position of a stage, for instance for photolithography equipment. Each of the X and Y coordinates is measured to great precision by reflecting a laser beam from a long flat mirrored surface lying perpendicular to the |
| 6037967 |
Short wavelength pulsed laser scanner |
March 14, 2000 |
| A laser pattern generator for semiconductor mask making or direct writing of features on a semiconductor wafer uses a pulsed laser source to achieve high power and short wavelength (e.g. 263 nm or less) radiation, for writing very small-sized features. The laser pulse frequency is either |
| 6023060 |
T-shaped electron-beam microcolumn as a general purpose scanning electron microscope |
February 8, 2000 |
| A charged particle-beam microcolumn, which for example may be used for charged particle microscopy, with a T-shape configuration has a relatively narrow base structure supporting the beam forming charged particle optical column. The narrow base structure permits the T-shaped microcolumn |
| 6011269 |
Shaped shadow projection for an electron beam column |
January 4, 2000 |
| A shaped electron beam column focuses electrons from an electron source to produce a shadow image of a shaped aperture on a writing plane. The shadow image of the shaped aperture is the defocused image of a shape aperture. This defocused shadow image is in the the object plane of the sha |
| 6008060 |
Detecting registration marks with a low energy electron beam |
December 28, 1999 |
| For electron beam wafer or mask processing, a registration mark is capacitively coupled to the top surface of an overlying resist layer on a substrate to form a voltage potential on the surface of the resist layer directly over the registration mark. The registration mark is directly |
| 6002135 |
Magnetic lens and deflector with inner and outer pole pieces with conical inner pole piece |
December 14, 1999 |
| A composite magnetic lens and deflector for particle beam optical systems has a concentric gap and concentric conical lower pole pieces arranged to allow more accurate magnetic deflection. The flux generated by a solenoidal lens coil is shared by magnetically soft inner and higher sa |
| 5959606 |
Rasterizer for pattern generator |
September 28, 1999 |
| A rasterizer, particularly suited for generating patterns for semiconductor masks and the like is described. An 8.times.8 array uses RAS, CAS and WE signals in addition to the memory address for accessing the array. A state machine is used to convert the pattern data (e.g., type of objec |
| 5900667 |
Operating a solid state particle detector within a magnetic deflection field so as to minimize e |
May 4, 1999 |
| A solid state electron or x-ray detector is mounted within the time-varying magnetic deflection fields of a charged particle beam system. A minimum volume of high resistivity conductors and insulating materials are used in the mounting to minimize eddy currents that otherwise cause dynam |
| 5876902 |
Raster shaped beam writing strategy system and method for pattern generation |
March 2, 1999 |
| A hybrid exposure strategy for pattern generation uses wide field raster scan deflection and a uniformly moving stage to expose long stripes. Periodic analog wide field magnetic scan is augmented by a high speed electrostatic retrograde scan to keep the beam stationary during exposure |
| 5847959 |
Method and apparatus for run-time correction of proximity effects in pattern generation |
December 8, 1998 |
| An electron beam pattern generating system for exposing a pattern on a substrate using a raster scan method. The system stores a rasterized representation of the pattern as a plurality of regular pixel dose exposure levels. These pixel dose exposure levels are evaluated by the system |
| 5838006 |
Conical baffle for reducing charging drift in a particle beam system |
November 17, 1998 |
| A conical shaped baffle aperture reduces beam position drift due to electrostatic charging of insulating contamination layers on beam tube walls of a charged particle beam system. The geometric cone angle, aperture size and apex location of the baffle with respect to the source of co |
| 5835198 |
Articulated platform mechanism for laser pattern generation on a workpiece |
November 10, 1998 |
| An articulated platform mechanism includes a base, a mounting frame including a platform, the frame having multiple attach portions; a mounting attached to each of the attach portions; a series of cams each having at least one cam surface; a series of cam followers; a series of drive |
| 5784925 |
Vacuum compatible linear motion device |
July 28, 1998 |
| A vacuum compatible linear motion device having a fluid bearing is contained within a vacuum chamber having a working pressure of significantly less than one atmosphere. The fluid bearing is contained within a vacuum enclosure within the vacuum chamber and is maintained at a pressure |
| 5757469 |
Scanning lithography system haing double pass Wynne-Dyson optics |
May 26, 1998 |
| A small field scanning photolithography system has a double pass Wynne-Dyson optical system which provides an erect, non-reverted, unmagnified image. An optical path through the system passes from an object, reflects off an input reflector, passes through a first quadrant of a lens, |
| 5729022 |
Composite concentric-gap magnetic lens and deflector with conical pole pieces |
March 17, 1998 |
| A composite magnetic lens and deflector for particle beam optical systems has a concentric gap and concentric conical lower pole pieces arranged to allow more accurate magnetic deflection. The flux generated by a solenoidal lens coil is shared by magnetically soft inner and higher sa |
| 5533170 |
Rasterizer for a pattern generation apparatus |
July 2, 1996 |
| A rasterizer for generating pixel values for a pattern generation apparatus. The pixel values drive the printing mechanism of the pattern generation apparatus. The rasterizer receives a file defining the pattern to be printed, fractures the pattern into sub frames, rasterizes each sub |
| 5412218 |
Differential virtual ground beam blanker |
May 2, 1995 |
| Spurious electrodynamic effects are reduced or eliminated by the use of a mechanically compact, low capacitance, geometrically symmetric, differentially-driven blanker assembly. This eliminates the need for internal cables or SMA-type launchers and has a solid metal electromechanical |
| 5393987 |
Dose modulation and pixel deflection for raster scan lithography |
February 28, 1995 |
| A raster scan lithography system is modified so that the duration of illumination (dose modulation) for particular pixels is varied to lie between the full on and full off normally used. For instance, three levels of pixel intensity are provided, 100%, 70% and 30% (in addition to off |
| 5386221 |
Laser pattern generation apparatus |
January 31, 1995 |
| An improved laser pattern generation apparatus. The improved pattern generation apparatus of the present invention uses a laser beam to expose a radiant sensitive film on the workpiece to print circuit patterns on a substrate. The laser beam is aligned using a beam steering means. The |
| 5345085 |
Method and structure for electronically measuring beam parameters |
September 6, 1994 |
| A method of electronically measuring parameters of an beam in a raster scan system includes the steps of: choosing a predetermined pixel to be calibrated, moving a grid adjacent this pixel, strobing the beam, incrementally moving the beam toward an axis of the grid, and integrating t |
| 5327338 |
Scanning laser lithography system alignment apparatus |
July 5, 1994 |
| A direct-write lithography tool having improved alignment characteristics. The present invention discloses use of an optical alignment apparatus in a multi-beam lithography system. The optical alignment apparatus provides for alignment through a reduction lens utilized by the multi-beam |
| 5304888 |
Mechanically stable field emission gun |
April 19, 1994 |
| An improved electron or ion gun support structure includes a hollow cylinder for rigidly connecting the source assembly to the source-motion ring, with the source cathode and associated lens extending into the hollow portion of the cylinder. The gun is thus made very stable and less |
| 5276330 |
High accuracy beam blanker |
January 4, 1994 |
| The accuracy of a double-deflection beam blanker is dramatically improved for all blanker voltages by using provided, closed-form, trajectory equations to determine the blanker geometric parameters and compensating for fringe-field effects in order to precisely determine the delay line |
| 5255051 |
Small field scanner |
October 19, 1993 |
| A method and apparatus for printing arbitrarily large circuit patterns using small field optics. The use of small field imaging optics allows the use of high NA lens designs capable of printing smaller geometries than otherwise would be possible. The field size in a first axis is extende |
| 5246800 |
Discrete phase shift mask writing |
September 21, 1993 |
| A method and apparatus for photolithographically fabricating features on a very large scale integrated circuit wafer by use of a phase shift mask defining discrete regions. This overcomes the problems of intensity nulls at the junction of regions formed by portions of the mask having opp |
| 5227839 |
Small field scanner |
July 13, 1993 |
| A method and apparatus for printing arbitrarily large circuit patterns using small field optics. The use of small field imaging optics allows the use of high NA lens designs capable of printing smaller geometries than otherwise would be possible. The field size in a first axis is extende |
