Electron Beam Lithography for Fine Dot Arrays with Nanometer-Sized Dot and Pitch

Abstract

Recently, electron beam (EB) lithography has been applied to mask and reticle pattern draw, for fabricating semiconductor devices, and nanometer-sized pattern direct writing for developing of new concept nano-device. Mainly, the developing of practical EB drawing system has been started since 1960s, and fine pattern formation has also been studied together with the system development [1-3]. Regarding EB-drawn pattern size, at first, micron and submicron-sized pattern has been drawn on mask blank and directly on the device [4]. Today, the pattern size miniaturizes to nanometer-size of less than 20 nm in research [5, 6]. Especially, I have focused the EB lithography into the possibility to form fine dot and fine pitched dot 2-dimensional arrays for patterned media and quantum devices. The research has been done by dependences of resist material and thickness on drawing of fine dot arrays with nanometer-sized pitch in EB drawing, theoretically and experimentally. I have used Monte Carlo simulation and a conventional EB drawing system combined with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and EB drawing controller [7]. In this chapter, I describe key factors such as resist type, resist thickness, proximity effect, etc for a formation of nanometer-pitch dot arrays, a limitation of the EB-drawn size theoretically and experimentally, and demonstrate the applications to dry-etching process and nano-imprinting.