Vistec EBPG Software Training

Last Updated 10.20.14

EBPG Software Training 1

EBPG Wiki

http://wiki.umn.edu/EBPG
• Server connection software, SOPs, tutorial
videos, etc.

• Updated frequently; check back (or ask) if

something isn’t there that should be

EBPG Software Training 2

Electron Beam Lithography
• The transfer of a CAD pattern to a substrate
by “writing” with a focused beam of electrons
– An electron beam is much smaller than a photon, so
extremely high resolution is possible
Electron Beam Lithography
(vs. optical lithography)

• Advantages • Disadvantages
– Highest resolution of – Proximity effect
mainstream litho.
technology – Exposure needs to be
done in vacuum.
– Flexibility (no mask
required) – Substrate
charging/damage
– Simplified resist
processing – Throughput!
EBL Resolution

6 nm 4.5 nm

6 nm lines fabricated in HSQ on the 9-nm-pitch nested-L test structure,

UMN Vistec EBPG5000+ EBL system fabricated in HSQ on a Raith-1502
EBL system (courtesy Raith GmbH)

• 1 nm ≈ 10 atoms!!!
Basic EBL Workflow
CAD design of pattern
Your
computer
Upload pattern

CAD server
Fracture pattern Generate job file
(ebpg.mnc.umn.edu)
(LayoutBEAMER) (CJOB)

Vistec
Execute job/expose pattern (b039.mnc.umn.edu)

EBPG Software Training 6

General Scope

• Basic system connectivity

and commands

• LayoutBEAMER overview

• Cjob/exposure overview

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 7

Logging into CAD server
• Locally
– Server is located in PAN 250 next to the door
– Use USB sticks or cloud storage to transfer files
• Remotely
– VNC (preferred): Basically makes a window on your computer
a “virtual monitor” on the server
– SSH: Can be used for text-based logins, or graphically if you
have an X server installed on your computer
• Also necessary for starting your VNC console!
– SFTP: Good for moving files back and forth between your
machine and the server

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 8

Using VNC

• Enter the server name, a colon, and your display

ID (e.g. ebpg.mnc.umn.edu:37)
– Your display ID is contained in the email you receive when
your account is activated
– Can also use the command showvnc in PuTTY to display
your desktop ID if you forget it
CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 9
Starting Your VNC Server
• Log into ebpg.mnc.umn.edu via SSH
– See software documentation for details

• Type the command crank at the prompt to start

your VNC server

• Keep your SSH window open for as long as you

use VNC

• When finished with VNC, exit the SSH session by

typing ‘exit’ or CTRL-D (don’t just close the
window)
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General Scope

• Basic system connectivity

and commands

• LayoutBEAMER overview

• Cjob/exposure overview

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 11

Basic EBL Workflow
CAD design of pattern
Your
computer
Upload pattern

CAD server
Fracture pattern Generate job file
(ebpg.mnc.umn.edu)
(LayoutBEAMER) (CJOB)

Vistec
Execute job/expose pattern (b039.mnc.umn.edu)

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 Exposure Strategy
• Define a shape
• Fracture the shape to be
exposed into trapezoids
• Split trapezoids into
pixels
• Write each trapezoid by
deflecting the beam to
each pixel
• Problem: Beam can only
be deflected ~250um in
any direction.
Writing Large Patterns
• Divide pattern up into write fields

• Move stage to place beam at the

center of write field

• Use beam deflectors/blanker to

write section of pattern in the
write field

• Move stage to next field and

repeat

Field stitching: accuracy with

which the fields line up at the
boundaries
(Generally <25 nm off in high-end EBL systems)
Exposing a Pattern
• Exposure is defined by electron dose (deposited charge per unit
area).

• Not fundamental! Same dose can give very different final

patterns depending on voltage, beam size, etc.
• Number that matters is deposited energy per unit volume
of resist, but this is hard to calculate
write field

I beam ( A)  t dwell ( s )


Dose C / cm  2
xstep (cm) 2

I: beam current step size

t: pixel dwell time time @ point = dwell time

x: step/pixel size
Proximity Effect
• Pattern distortions due to electron scattering.
– 2 types: forward scattering and backscattering
• Low Voltage
– Significant forward scattering, causing fine features to “blur”.
• High Voltage
– Forward scattering reduced, but backscatter range is increased,
making it possible for shapes far from one another to be affected

beam

resist backscattering (β)

forward
scattering (α)
substrate
Proximity Effect
Proximity Effect

Areas with > 100% Dose

“Drawn” pattern

Extra exposure due to scattering

Proximity Effect Correction
• Simple explanation: use lower doses in
dense regions and higher doses in isolated
regions to counter cooperative exposure
Highest dose

Low dose
100 μm

Higher dose
Purpose of LayoutBEAMER

• Turns your CAD files into EBPG-readable lists of

polygons (“fracturing”)

• Divides pattern into mainfield and subfields

• Performs (optional) proximity effect correction

• Miscellaneous other functions

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Starting LayoutBEAMER

• Our BEAMER license is single-user, please be

considerate!
CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 20
• (interactive Beamer demo goes here)

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General Scope

• Basic system connectivity

and commands

• LayoutBEAMER overview

• EBPG/CJOB overview

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 22

User Environments
• Only one permanently logged-in linux user (“pg”)
• Each tool user has an environment they can
switch to with:
ce <username>

• Environment has several subdirectories

– Jobs: Contains .job and .cjob files
– Patterns: Contains .gpf files referenced in job files
– Log: Contains log files created during writes
• No isolation between users– don’t mess with
other peoples’ files!
CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 23
Basic EBL Workflow
CAD design of pattern
Your
computer
Upload pattern

CAD server
Fracture pattern Generate job file
(ebpg.mnc.umn.edu)
(LayoutBEAMER) (CJOB)

Vistec
Execute job/expose pattern (b039.mnc.umn.edu)

EBPG Software Training 24

EBPG Software: CView
• Fractured (.gpf) file
viewer

• Useful for
checking doses,
fracturing errors,
etc

• Available on CAD
machine as well as
EBPG
CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 25
EBPG Software - CSem

• SEM off: shows deflector position in real-time

• SEM on: allows (limited) imaging of marks etc.
• Also useful for getting absolute coords

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 26

EBPG Software - CJob
• GUI based exposure script creator

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Design Objects
Exposable Objects

Pattern Shape Identifier

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 28

Design Objects
Container Objects

Substrate Exposure Layout

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 29

• (interactive CJOB demo goes here)

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Exposure Parameters?

• What values should I use for…

– Step size?
– Beam current?
– Electron dose?

• Picking the right values for these is the key to

getting maximum performance from the EBPG

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Definitions
• Spot Size: The physical width of the electron
beam during your write. Indirectly set by beam
current used to write.

– AKA: Beam diameter, beam width

• Pixel Size: The width of the pixels in your pattern

file. Directly set by fracture settings in
LayoutBEAMER

– AKA: Resolution, Beam step size, Pixel width, pixel diameter.

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Step Size Considerations
• Line-edge roughness
– For best results, your smallest feature should be at least 5
pixels wide after fracturing
– You can cheat this if LER isn’t a major issue

• Spot size compatibility

– To get the largest possible process window, pixel size should
be ~60% of the beam spot size you’re using
• Spot size is set by beam current; see chart online
– Anything between 10-100% of spot size will work, but feature
sizes will be much more dose-dependent

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Beam Size and Pixel Size

Beam width too Beam width too Good pixel/beam

small for pixel large for pixel width, size ratio, pattern is
width, pattern not pattern washed out evenly exposed
fully exposed

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Beam Current Considerations
• Spot size
– Spot size is directly proportional to beam current
– Pick a current to get a spot ~2X the size of your pixel
diameter, if possible
– If you need low current/large spot, beam can be defocused in
CJob
• Throughput
– Higher beam current will speed up your write
– Be careful not to exceed 50 MHz pixel clock limit!
– Available beam currents:
• 100 pA – 300 nA (300 μm aperture)
• 1 nA – 400 nA (400 μm aperture)
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Theoretical Spot Sizes (100 kV)

Beam current 300 μm 400 μm

(nA) aperture aperture

0.1 5 nm 7 nm

0.5 5 7
Can always use the mss
1 5 7 command to verify the
spot size of a beam.
5 5 10

10 16 15

50 40 30

100 60 50

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 36

Dose Considerations
• Resist sensitivity
– Dose needs to be high enough to expose resist, but low
enough that scattered electrons don’t wash out the pattern
– Critical dose is very geometry-dependent; can vary by more
than an order of magnitude
– Always do a dose array when running a new pattern!

• Throughput
– Lower dose = higher throughput, obviously
– Use a more sensitive resist/development process to speed up
your write, if needed
EBPG Software Training 37
Aligned Writing
• What if we want to accurately place a pattern on
top of a pre-existing structure?

• Use alignment marks in the first pattern as a

reference for the second
– EBPG5K+ has an overlay error of <50 nm if you do
everything right
Alignment Mark Design

- Best markers are rectangles

- Crosses can be used, but aligning is harder
- Size: 1-100 μm, larger is better (~10 μm is typical)

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 39

Terminology Clarification
• Mark Definition: The description of what your
mark looks like in the software (created from the
command line and referenced in job files)

• Alignment Mark: The actual, physical mark

present on your substrate, fabricated in a
previous process step.

Your marks and mark definitions need to match for

alignment to work!

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Hierarchal Alignment

• Global (Exposure) marks

• Local (Layout) marks

• Local (Pattern) marks

• More marks = more

consistent alignment!

• Mark references can be

reused at multiple levels

CJOB training (Vistec Confidential) 41

Alignment Mark Tips
• Use several levels of marks (global, layout,
pattern)
– More closely spaced marks = better overlay accuracy
– Creating pattern-level marks and reusing them up the
hierarchy is an easy way to do this

• Try to surround the pattern you’re aligning to with

marks
– The “generate” button is bad at this; avoid it

• Use good mark materials/processes

– See guide online for more
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Next Steps
• Read through the SOP online
– Other parts of the wiki may be useful too

• Download software from Wiki, make sure you

can connect to the server

• Experiment with creating jobs/patterns in

LayoutBEAMER and Cjob

• Register for hardware shortcourse

– No sample needed for this, we’ll do a dummy write

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