FAQs

What if I want a mask with curved or circular features?

All of our mask exposure systems work on the principle of exposing an array of pixels to transfer the image from the data onto the mask. The smaller the size of the pixel, the better the resolution of any curves or circular features, however this increases the size of the mask data which can result in longer exposure times and a higher cost of the mask. The mask exposure tools are optimized to write rectangular data with 45-degree angles, so if it is possible to specify your design using squares or octagons, then the data will write faster than using circles. Whilst this becomes very important for masks with thousands of circular or curved features, it is not an issue for a small numbers of curves or circular features on a mask, containing mostly rectangular features.