Capacity of electron beam reducing image projection systems with dynamically compensated field aberrations

Abstract

Electron beam reducing image projection systems of today are limited in resolution and transferable pixel number by field curvature, field astigmatisms, and diffraction at the mask. We investigate theoretically whether a pixel number larger than 10 10 can be achieved in an image field of 400 mm 2 with a resolution capability of 100 nm, as it is required for masks of very large chips. The theory of image formation in electron beam reducing image projection systems and the comparison of earlier systems renders the proposal of a new design with dynamically compensated aberrations of the illuminating and the imaging system.