A device and a method for imaging and positioning a multiparticle beam on
a substrate is disclosed. The device comprises a particle beam source
with a condenser optic that produces a particle beam that illuminates the
surface of an aperture plate. A multiplicity of individual beams are
produced from the particle beam by means of the aperture plate, which are
then projected by a projection system onto a substrate where they
describe a beam base point. The substrate or target, respectively, is
placed on a table that is movable along an x-coordinate and a
y-coordinate, and that is provided with a laser path measurement system.
The laser path measurement system relays positional data with a fixed
clock rate to a synchronization and control device 50 that positions the
beam base point along the x-coordinate and the y-coordinate via a beam
tracking system, taking into account the corrective data and pixel phase,
whereby precise staircase beam-to-table positioning is achieved across
the entire substrate in spite of faulty table movement.