5-nm-Order Electron-Beam Lithography for Nanodevice Fabrication

We have developed 5-nm-order electron-beam (EB) lithography with good uniformity within a large main deflection field. The keys are a new electron optics system and a high-resolution resist (hydrogen silsesquioxane). Owing to the high resolution and good uniformity of the EB, the lithography can produce patterns with a minimum linewidth of 5 nm at the center and corners of the 500-µm-square main deflection field. Moreover, we accurately measured the beam diameter using a Si knife edge with Ta visors and thresholds of 50–90%. The measurement results agree well with the lithography results when the effect of secondary electrons is taken into consideration. These results demonstrate that high-precision 5-nm-order lithography has been established.