JPH0680627B2 - Drawing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a pattern generator (hereinafter referred to as PG).
And a technique suitable for being applied to an electron beam drawing apparatus.

Recently, in the field of manufacturing semiconductor devices (hereinafter referred to as ICs), focusing on the high-speed processing capability of electron beams, a high-speed PG that replaces the photo PG has been developed, for example, as described in JP-A-54-25596. It has become established practically to apply it to an electron beam drawing apparatus used for making a reticle.

By the way, in such a drawing apparatus, an attempt has been made so far to process pattern data as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, the pattern design data 20 having a hierarchical structure recorded on the first magnetic tape 31 (see details below) 20 is input to a data converter 33, and this converter 33 produces expanded data (see below) 27. Created. Next, the expanded data 27 is recorded and stored on the second magnetic tape 32 by the magnetic recording device 34. When the desired circuit pattern 30 is to be drawn by the electron beam drawing device EB, the recorded and saved second magnetic tape 32 is applied to the magnetic recording / reproducing device 35 of the drawing device EB, and the expansion data 27 is obtained. Is played.

The development data 27 is converted by the drawing control signal converter 36 into a control signal necessary for operating the lens barrel 1 to draw a desired circuit pattern. This control signal is input to the deflection system controller 14, and under the control of the deflection system controller 14, the lens barrel 1 executes a predetermined drawing operation to obtain a desired circuit pattern 30.
To draw.

However, in such an electron beam drawing apparatus,
Even though the pattern design data is recorded on the first magnetic tape in a compressed form in a hierarchical structure, the expanded data is recorded and saved on another magnetic tape after being expanded for drawing based on the pattern design data. Therefore, when the drawing information increases with the miniaturization and high integration of the pattern, the external magnetic recording means necessary for storing the expanded data has a huge capacity, There is a drawback that the drawing process takes time.

An object of the present invention is to record pattern design data to be drawn in a compressed form, and based on the expanded data without recording the expanded data expanded to be drawn based on the pattern design data in an external storage means. An object of the present invention is to provide a drawing device that can significantly reduce the processing time by directly controlling the drawing device.

The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an electron beam drawing apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a drawing data processing process by the same.

The electron beam drawing apparatus EB includes a lens barrel 1 as a drawing operation unit. The lens barrel 1 includes an electron gun 2, an irradiation lens 3, a first aperture 4 for forming a circular beam spot, and a shaping lens 5. And a second aperture 6 that creates a rectangular beam spot 7 (the portion shaded with diagonal lines) whose length can be changed.
, Reduction lens 8, electrostatic deflector 9, projection lens 10
An XY table (sample table) for mounting and holding a magnetic deflector 11 and a mask blank 13 as an object to be drawn having a surface to be drawn on which a resist that is exposed to light by the electron gun 2 is applied. It has 12 and. The electrostatic deflector 9 and the electromagnetic deflector 11 constitute a deflecting means.

Further, the electron beam drawing apparatus EB is equipped with a graphic data processing apparatus 15 for inputting a predetermined control signal to the deflection system controller 14 in order to execute a desired drawing operation on the lens barrel 1.
In addition to this, the device EB includes various power supply units, control units, and a central processing unit (CPU) that controls these units.

The graphic data processing device 15 incorporated in the electron beam drawing device EB, as shown in FIG.
And a drawing converter 17 as a developed data creating means and a drawing control signal converter 18, which are configured to execute the operations described later.

Next, the operation will be described.

The drawing information used in the electron beam drawing apparatus EB is recorded on the magnetic tape 19 as an external storage means in the form of pattern design data 20 having a hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. This hierarchical pattern design data 20 is based on a large number of pre-prepared cells 21A, 21B.
The cell is configured by individually setting a large number of basic patterns 22A, 22B .... For example, the basic pattern 22A is formed by a set of beam spots 7 formed by the second apertures 6 in the lens barrel 1 so that the size of the beam spots 7 (for example, 20 × 4 μm in length and width)
Rectangle) and the origin (X ₀ , Y ₀ ) 23A of the cell 21A and the origin 24 of each spot relative to the coordinates (X ₁ , Y ₁ ), (X ₂ , Y ₂ ) ...
It is composed by being expressed by and.

The pattern design data 20 includes cells 21A and 21B having necessary basic patterns (two types of 22A and 22B in the illustrated example; the same applies hereinafter) out of a large number of prepared cells, and cells 21A and 21A of the basic patterns, respectively. A specific cell of 21B is composed of cell selection information individually selected by the specification information 26 for specifying the position on the chip, and has a hierarchical structure. The designation information 26 includes coordinates (X ₁ , Y ₀ ) with respect to the origin (X ₀ , Y ₀ ) of the chips of the origins 23A and 23B of the selected cells 21A and 21B.
₁ ), (X ₂ , Y ₂ ), (X ₃ , Y ₃ ), and (X ₄ , Y ₄ ) respectively.

The pattern design data 20 thus configured and recorded and stored on the magnetic tape 19 is read by being read by the magnetic recording / reproducing device 16 incorporated in the electron beam drawing device EB, and input to the data converter 17.

The data converter 17 as the expanded data creating means expands the pattern design data 20 into expanded data 27 as shown in FIG. 3 and outputs the expanded data 27. That is, the pattern design data 20
First, according to the designation of the designation information 26, the cells 21A and 21B selected as described above are converted into the information of the expansion structure specifically arranged on the chip 28, that is, the expansion data 27. The specific distribution is that the selected cells 21A and 21B with respect to the origin (X ₀ , Y ₀ ) 29 of the chip 28 are coordinated (X ₁ , Y ₁ ), (X ₂ , Y ₂ ), (X ₃ , Y ₃ ), (X ₄ , Y ₄ ) respectively. Further, the pattern design data 20 is also converted into information in which the patterns 22A and 22B at the designated positions of the cells 21A and 21B on the chip 28 are also specifically developed.

For example, the basic pattern 22 to be drawn first on the chip 28
The information at the beginning of A is a rectangular spot 7 × 20 μm in width and height.
Is applied to the coordinates (X ₁ + x ₁ , Y ₂ + y ₂ ) of the chip 28, and the second information is that the spot 7 of the same shape has coordinates (X ₁ + x ₁ + Δx, Y ₁ + y 2). ₂ + Δy) is represented by expressing irradiation. Therefore, the output of the expanded data 27 becomes a huge amount of information.

The data 27 thus developed is input to the drawing control signal conversion unit. The converter 18 converts the expansion data 27 into a command signal of a form suitable for controlling the deflection system, and inputs it to the deflection system control unit 14. The deflection system controller 14 controls the lens barrel 1 based on the command signal to perform a drawing operation.

In the lens barrel 1, an electron beam is emitted from the electron gun 2, the electron beam is shaped and narrowed down by the first and second apertures 4 and 6 and the lens groups 5 and 8, and the deflection system controller is controlled by the deflectors 9 and 11. Deflection scanning is performed under the control of 14, so that a desired circuit pattern 30 as shown in FIG. 3 is drawn.

According to the present embodiment, the information amount of the expanded data becomes enormous, but it is directly input to the drawing control signal converter without recording enormous information on the magnetic tape as in the case shown in FIG. Therefore, a magnetic tape for recording and storing this is unnecessary. That is, since the drawing data is recorded and stored in the magnetic tape 19 in the form of the pattern design data having the hierarchical structure as described above, the length of the magnetic tape used for recording and storage is short, and the expansion data is drawn. Control signal converter 18
Since it is directly input to the deflection system controller 14 via, the processing time is significantly longer than that in the case where the data recorded on the magnetic tape is read and then processed by the drawing control signal converter as shown in FIG. It can be shortened.

Although the electron beam writing apparatus has been described in the above embodiments, the present invention can also be applied to a writing apparatus having a photo PG or a PG using an ion beam, and forms a pattern on a mask or reticle. Not limited to the case, the pattern may be directly formed on the wafer.

Also, a recording medium for pattern design data, a recording / reproducing means,
There is no limitation on the specific configuration of the conversion means for each data.

As described above, according to the present invention, the design data to be drawn is stored in the compressed form in the external storage means, while the pattern design data from the external storage means is expanded by the expansion data creating means and then deflected. Since the deflection means is directly controlled by the system control means, the magnetic tape for storing the expanded data is not required, and the processing time can be greatly shortened. Further, in the external storage means such as a magnetic tape, a cell having pattern design data having a basic pattern and cell selection information in which a specific cell is selected by designating information designating a position on an object to be written have a hierarchical structure. Since the data is stored as, the positions of the cells can be arbitrarily combined according to the designation information, and the amount of drawing data input to the external storage means can be reduced to shorten the drawing time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electron beam drawing apparatus which has been tried so far, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an electron beam drawing apparatus which is one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a main part of FIG. It is a block diagram showing. 1 ... Lens barrel, 9 ... Electrostatic deflector, 11 ... Electromagnetic deflector (deflection control means), 13 ... Mask blank, 14 ... Deflection system controller, 15 ... Graphic data processing device, 16 ... ... Magnetic recording / reproducing device, 17 ... Data converter (expanded data creating means), 18
…… Drawing control signal converter, 19 …… Magnetic tape, 20 …… Pattern design data, 21A, 21B …… Cell, 22A, 22B …… Basic pattern, 23A, 23B …… Origin, 25 …… Cell selection information, 26
…… Specified information, 27 …… Expanded data, 27a …… Expanded data, 28 …… Chips, 30 …… Circuit pattern.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A drawing apparatus comprising a sample stage for holding an object to be drawn, a beam irradiation source for irradiating a beam toward the object to be drawn, and a deflection means for deflecting the beam applied to the object to be drawn. A plurality of cells having mutually different basic pattern shapes and a cell in which a specific cell among the plurality of cells is individually selected with respect to the designation information corresponding to the position on the object to be drawn. External storage means for storing pattern design data having a hierarchical structure including selection information, and expansion data creating means for expanding the position of the basic pattern on the object to be drawn based on the designation information to create expansion data. And a deflection system control means for outputting the development data to the deflection means, and a drawing apparatus including the development data creation means and the deflection system control means.