Recent advancement and future plans on electron multi-beam mask writers

The multi-beam mask writer MBM-3000 has been launched since 2023 for next-generation EUV mask production. It is equipped with 12-nm beamlets and a powerful cathode that brings out a current density of 3.6 A/cm2, in order to achieve better resolution and writing speed than our current writer MBM-2000PLUS. New optics with a next-generation blanking aperture array (BAA) is installed to have a 2X beam count. A data generation system has a 2X speed so that it can handle layouts of next-generation EUV masks without a data processing overhead. The writing accuracy and throughput improvements of the MBM-3000 have been confirmed not only in the in-house process, but also at several customers' sites.