PYRAMID-a hierarchical, rule-based approach toward proximity effect correction. II. Correction

For pt. I see ibid., vol. 11, no. 1, p. 108-16 (1998). One of the major limiting factors with electron beam lithography in the production of high resolution patterns is the distortion of the exposed region by electron scattering. This distortion (known as the proximity effect) imposes a severe limitation on the ultimate resolution attainable with electron beam lithography. It is therefore important to examine ways in which the proximity effect can be reduced, we are currently developing a novel proximity effect correction scheme called PYRAMID which takes a hierarchical, rule-based approach toward correction. In Part I, our fast and accurate exposure estimation scheme is presented. In this paper (Part II), we present the correction hierarchy employed in PYRAMID and analyze its accuracy using both simulation and experimental results demonstrating PYRAMID's ability to correct circuit patterns with minimum feature sizes down to 0.1 /spl mu/m on homogeneous substrates successfully.