Renovation of three-dimensional electron beam lithography for improvement of positioning accuracy and reduction of turnaround time

The three-dimensional (3D) electron beam (EB) lithography devised by the authors, which uses EB writing on a sample from various directions, was renovated. Although the original technique was effective for 3D nanofabrication in hard materials, it had two disadvantages: long turnaround time (TAT) and insufficient 3D alignment accuracy in conflict with its high resolution. The renovated technique uses new methods of focusing and fine adjustment of rotations in an EB writer with higher positioning accuracy in addition to a rotation drive with higher rotation accuracy than the previous apparatus. These have enabled us to significantly reduce the TATand obtain sufficiently high 3D alignment accuracy. Moreover, 3D resist coating on all four side faces of a square microblock formed on a substrate, which is very useful for 3D nanofabrication, is demonstrated. The renovation is accelerating the technique's application to various 3D nanodevices.