Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A charged-particle multi-beam exposure apparatus (1) for exposure of a target (41) with a plurality of beams of electrically charged particles, said particle beams propagating along parallel beam paths towards the target (41),wherein for each of said particle beams an illumination system (10), a shaping means (20) and a projection optics system (30) are provided, with the illumination system (10) being adapted to produce the beam and form it into a substantially telecentric beam illuminating the shaping means, the shaping means (20) being adapted to form the shape of the illuminating beam into a desired pattern, and the projection optics system (30) being adapted to project an image of the beam shape defined in the shaping means onto the target (40),wherein the shaping means (20) of each particle beam is realized as a pattern definition means for defining a multitude of beamlets in the respective particle beam, said means being adapted to let pass the illuminating beam only through a plurality of apertures defining the shape of beamlets permeating said apertures, said means further comprising a blanking means to switch off the passage of selected beamlets from the respective paths of the beamlets,wherein the illuminating system (10) and/or the projection optics system (30) comprise particle-optical lenses having lens elements (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5) common to more than one particle beam. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the common lens elements are realized as individual lens elements provided for each of the particle beams and connected to a unique electrical supply. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the common lens elements are realized by a common structural member surrounding each of the particle beams. 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the particle-optical lenses of the illuminating system (10) and the projection optics system (30) comprise lens elements (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5) common to more than one particle beam as well as lens elements (LB1, LB2, LB3, LB4, LB5) which are individual to one particle beam respectively and connected to individual electrical supplies. 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the particle-optical lenses of the illuminating system (10) and the projection optics system (30) comprise electrostatic lenses (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5) which are common to multiple particle beams as well as electrostatic lens elements (LB1, LB2, LB3, LB4, LB5) which are individual to one particle beam respectively for introducing individual corrections of the effect of the common electrostatic lenses (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5). 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apertures in the pattern definition means (20) have identical shapes. 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apertures in the pattern definition means (20) have shapes which produce images of identical shape on the target (41). 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the projection system comprises three or more focusing elements realizing reducing projection optics having two consecutive cross-overs. 9. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a projection lens system having 4 lenses realizing a 2-stage reduction system, in which parts of the beam are used for beam adjustment and beam analysis at the position of the intermediate image, located between the first and second cross-over. 10. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a target stage (40) adapted to move the target (41) under the multiple beams according to a predefined scanning motion according to which the beams cover the total area of the target to be exposed in the course of the exposure process. 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the target stage (40) is adapted to perform a scanning motion according to which each beam covers the total area of a sub-field of the target, with the sub-fields altogether totaling to the total area of the target to be exposed. 12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the target stage (40) is adapted to perform a scanning motion according to which each beam covers the total area of a sub-field of the target, with the sub-fields of the beams covering separate parts of the total area of the target to be exposed. 13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the target stage (40) is adapted to perform a scanning motion according to which each beam covers the total area of a sub-field of the target in a single pass scanning stripe exposure pattern (FIG. 5). 14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein for each particle beam a pattern definition means is provided, having a pattern field (pf) in which the apertures are located, said pattern field having a length (L) of at least 500 times the size (w) of the apertures. 15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein for each particle beam a pattern definition means is provided with at least 20000 apertures whose transparency to the particle beam can be electronically controlled between switched on and off states. 16. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising an electrostatic lens (ML) having an electrode column realized as a series of at least 3 electrodes of substantially equal shape of substantially rotational symmetry (EFR, EM, EFN) surrounding the respective beam path, with said electrodes being arranged in consecutive order coaxially along an optical axis representing the center of the beam path and said electrodes being provided with electric supplies for feeding different electrostatic potentials to the respective electrodes. 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the outer radius of all electrodes of the electrostatic lens is not larger than 5 times the largest radius of said particle beam path within the lens. 18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the electrodes (EM) of the electrode column are at least partially made from a soft-magnetic material having at environmental conditions a relative permeability greater than 100. 19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the relative permeability is greater than 300. 20. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising a magnetic shielding tube (MS, 3) made from a soft-magnetic material surrounding the electrode column and extending along the direction of the optical axis at least over the length of the electrode column. 21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein outer portions (OR) of the electrodes (EM) of the electrode column(s) have corresponding opposing surfaces (f1, f2) facing toward the next and previous electrodes, respectively. 22. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein each electrode (EM) of the electrode column comprises an outer member ring (OR) having a cylindrical shape with corresponding opposing surfaces (f1, f2) facing toward the next and previous electrodes, respectively, and further comprises an inner member ring (IR) with a circular edge (cd) directed toward the optical axis. 23. The electrostatic lens of claim 22, wherein the inner member ring (IR) is provided with a concave surface (cv) extending outward from the circular edge (cd) and facing toward the direction from where the charged particles enter the electrode column.