Patent ID: 8492731

Claim:
A charged particle lithography system for transferring a pattern onto the surface of a target, comprising: a beam generator for generating a plurality of charged particle beamlets, the plurality of beamlets defining a column; a beam stop array having a surface for blocking beamlets from reaching the target surface and an array of apertures in the surface for allowing the beamlets to reach the target surface; and a modulation device for modulating the beamlets to prevent one or more of the beamlets from reaching the target surface or allow one or more of the beamlets to reach the target surface, by deflecting or not deflecting the beamlets so that the beamlets are blocked or not blocked by the beam stop array, the modulation device comprising: a plurality of apertures arranged in arrays for letting the beamlets pass through the modulation device; a plurality of modulators arranged in arrays, each modulator provided with electrodes extending on opposing sides of an aperture for generating a voltage difference across the aperture; and a plurality of light sensitive elements arranged in arrays, for receiving modulated light beams and converting the light beams into electric signals for actuating the modulators, wherein the light sensitive elements are located within the column; wherein the modulation device is subdivided into a plurality of alternating beam areas and non-beam areas, the arrays of modulators are located in the beam areas, and the arrays of light sensitive elements are located in the non-beam areas and are in communication with the modulators in an adjacent beam area.