Bulk & sleeving of patterns for time writing optimisation

Motivation:

Electron beam lithography is a technique that provides small beam sizes that enable reaching high resolution. However, increasing the pattern quality can lead to drawn-out exposure times. While pattern fidelity benefits from small beam sizes, speeding up a process throughput relies on fast exposures done with larger beam sizes. Ideally, a layout can be separated into bulk and sleeved areas. Large areas require lower definition and thus can be exposed faster, while only narrow areas require the highest resolution.

Solution:

BEAMER provides the tools to perform a simple method to split a layout into bulk and sleeve regions. This separation of areas enables the exposing of critical features with small beam sizes while keeping bulk areas with larger beam sizes. Additionally, BEAMER proximity effect correction optimises the exposure dose, reducing the exposure time while preserving the patterning quality.