TY - JOUR
T1 - Charge-induced pattern displacement in E-beam lithography
AU - Arat, Kerim T.
AU - Klimpel, Thomas
AU - Zonnevylle, Aernout C.
AU - Ketelaars, Wilhelmus S.M.M.
AU - Heerkens, Carel Th H.
AU - Hagen, Cornelis W.
N1 - Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Electron beam lithography (EBL) requires conducting substrates to ensure pattern fidelity. However, there is an increasing interest in performing EBL on less well-conducting surfaces or even insulators, usually resulting in seriously distorted pattern formation. To understand the underlying charging phenomena, the authors use Monte Carlo simulations that include models for substrate charging, electron beam-induced current, and electric breakdown. Simulations of electron beam exposure of glass wafers are presented, exposing regular patterns which become distorted due to charge-induced beam deflection. The resulting displacements within the patterns are mapped and compared to experimental displacement maps obtained from patterns in PMMA resist on glass substrates. Displacements up to several hundreds of nanometers were observed at a primary beam energy of 50 keV. Also, various scan strategies were used to write the patterns, in the simulations as well as the experiments, revealing their strong effect on pattern distortion, in shape and in magnitude. A qualitative, in some cases even quantitative, good agreement was found between the simulations and the experiments, providing enough confidence in Monte Carlo simulations to predict charge-induced pattern displacement and shape distortion and to find smart scan strategies to minimize the effects of charging.
AB - Electron beam lithography (EBL) requires conducting substrates to ensure pattern fidelity. However, there is an increasing interest in performing EBL on less well-conducting surfaces or even insulators, usually resulting in seriously distorted pattern formation. To understand the underlying charging phenomena, the authors use Monte Carlo simulations that include models for substrate charging, electron beam-induced current, and electric breakdown. Simulations of electron beam exposure of glass wafers are presented, exposing regular patterns which become distorted due to charge-induced beam deflection. The resulting displacements within the patterns are mapped and compared to experimental displacement maps obtained from patterns in PMMA resist on glass substrates. Displacements up to several hundreds of nanometers were observed at a primary beam energy of 50 keV. Also, various scan strategies were used to write the patterns, in the simulations as well as the experiments, revealing their strong effect on pattern distortion, in shape and in magnitude. A qualitative, in some cases even quantitative, good agreement was found between the simulations and the experiments, providing enough confidence in Monte Carlo simulations to predict charge-induced pattern displacement and shape distortion and to find smart scan strategies to minimize the effects of charging.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072398376&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1116/1.5120631
DO - 10.1116/1.5120631
M3 - Article
VL - 37
JO - Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Nanotechnology and Microelectronics
JF - Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Nanotechnology and Microelectronics
SN - 2166-2746
IS - 5
M1 - 051603
ER -