Abstract
Electron beam lithography is a promising technology for next generation lithography. Compared to optical lithography, it has better pattern fidelity and larger process window. However, the proximity effect caused by the electron forward scattering and backscattering in the resist and the underlying substrate materials has a severe influence on the pattern fidelity when the required critical dimensions (CD) are comparable to the electron beam blur size. Therefore, an accurate electron scattering model and a proper proximity correction play a vital role in electron beam lithography. In this paper, we describe the model accuracy of electron scattering in terms of multiple Gaussian kernels with an in-house proximity error correction to reduce proximity error with much better accuracy and more self-consistency than the double Gaussian kernel on the 100-keV electron energies. The impact of various Gaussian kernels used in the proximity correction on the lineation of typical patterns is also addressed. © 2013 SPIE.