Patent ID: 7374869

Claim:
A lithographic processing method for providing a desired pattern to a target portion of a layer of radiation sensitive material using multiple exposure, the desired pattern comprising a plurality of features wherein the densest features thereof are arranged at a pitch P, the method comprising: providing first and second adapted sub-patterns by expanding each feature of each of a first and second sub-pattern by a value other than that associated with a demagnification, if any, associated with exposure of the first and second adapted sub-patterns, each sub-pattern having the densest features at a pitch greater than P and each sub-pattern being formed from a portion of the plurality of features of the desired pattern; performing a first exposure of the target portion with a beam of radiation patterned in accordance with the first adapted sub-pattern; performing a second exposure of the target portion with a beam of radiation patterned in accordance with the second adapted sub-pattern, the second exposure being arranged in a registry with the first exposure to form combined adapted first and second sub-patterns; resist-processing the exposed radiation sensitive layer to provide an intermediate pattern comprising features in accordance with the combined adapted first and second sub-patterns; and applying supplementary resist-processing to shrink the features of the intermediate pattern to match a size of shrunken features to a size of corresponding features of said desired pattern.