Electron beam lithography

Electron beam lithography means writing patterns in thin films of electron sensitive material using a finely focused (sub-micrometre diameter) electron beam. By combining electrical scanning with interferometrically monitored mechanical motion, very complex patterns can be generated with great accuracy; for example, a pattern containing one-micrometre features can extend over 100 mm with a positional accuracy of 025 μm. In the manufacture of integrated circuits this technique is used for generating masks which are then projected optically onto silicon wafers which are coated with photosensitive resists. For making circuits with sub-micrometre features the resist-coated wafer can be exposed directly with the electron beam; however this is slow because the electron beam exposure is point-by-point and there are limits to electron beam intensity and resist sensitivity. Overcoming this limit is possible using techniques which allow the exposure of many points simultaneously but such techniques are not yet widespread. Competing techniques are ion beam lithography and X-ray lithography.