Decades of rivalry and complementary of photon and electron beams

Abstract

Not long after the photon beam was used to delineate circuit patterns in resist, e-beam was called for duty due to the concern of photons running out of resolution. The e-beam counterpart of proximity printing, projection printing, and direct writing quickly took shape as early as 1975. The race was on. Optical projection printing, taking advantage of a high degree of parallelism, excelled in throughput and economy for wafer patterning. However, electrons can be quickly deflected to directly write patterns. It took over mask writing. Rivalry turned into complementary for decades. Recently e-beam has a new opportunity to beat photon beam at its own game of parallelism and eliminate the problems associated with masks altogether. This presentation compares optical and e-beam imaging technically, economically, and historically, pointing to the rewards and challenges for each technology to succeed.