JP2000100692A - Method for correcting design pattern - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow high-precision and fast correction even near a corner or a contact part using a conventional 1-dimension correcting means. SOLUTION: To improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer against a design pattern, the design pattern is corrected and used as a mask pattern. Here, a rounding correction amount for correcting the effect of rounding at a corner part is added in advance for an edge near a pattern corner part of the design part, an edge which is to be corrected is extracted from the design pattern, a 1-dimension correction amount is acquired using a 1-dimension simulator with the extracted edge which is to be corrected, and a correction is made so that an edge to be corrected moves in the direction vertical to the edge by the acquired 1-dimension correction amount.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for designing a photomask for semiconductor manufacturing, and more particularly to a design pattern correction method, a design pattern correction system, and a design pattern correction program for reducing the influence of the optical proximity effect. Related to a recorded medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in a lithography process for manufacturing a semiconductor, a mask pattern formed on the basis of a design pattern is exposed on a wafer in order to improve the fidelity of the actual pattern to the design pattern. A design pattern correction method for correcting a pattern and using the corrected pattern as a mask pattern has been proposed.

A first prior art related to this type of method is (Proc. SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. (USA) vol. 2322: p.
p.229-238 (1994)) (Optical Proximity Corre
In a paper entitled ction, a First Look at Manufacturability), a correction rule based on the distance from the edge to the closest figure is created in advance. And DRAM
In the gate layer, the gate edge on the active region is extracted, a correction value corresponding to the distance from the extracted edge to the closest figure is obtained based on the correction rule, and the entire edge is moved by the correction value. An automatic optical proximity effect correction method for performing correction based on the above is discussed.

As a second prior art, (Proc. SPIE-Int.
(OPTIMASK: An OPC A) by (Eytan Barouch) et al. In Soc. Opt. Eng (USA) vol. 2440: pp. 192-206 (1995).
lgorithm for Chrome and Phase-Shirg Mask Design)
In this paper, an exposure simulation is performed on a design pattern, an edge portion (error edge) where the difference between the simulation image and the design pattern is larger than a set threshold value is extracted, and a correction value calculated from the simulation is extracted. An automatic optical proximity effect correction method for correcting the error by moving the error edge by the amount is discussed.

However, in the first prior art, only a correction amount according to the distance from the closest figure is given. Therefore, in this method, a one-dimensional pattern such as a gate portion can be corrected, but a two-dimensional effect is large near a corner or a contact portion, and sufficient correction cannot be performed. Further, in the second conventional technique, it is also possible to correct an edge near a corner. However, since a two-dimensional transfer simulation is performed on the entire area to be corrected to obtain the correction amount, the processing time becomes enormous.

[0006]

As described above, conventionally, if the correction amount is obtained only by one-dimensional simulation, a sufficient correction cannot be performed in the vicinity of the corner or the contact portion. Further, when the correction amount is obtained by a two-dimensional simulation, a sufficient correction can be performed in the vicinity of the corner or the contact portion, but there is a problem that the processing time becomes enormous.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and has as its object to partially utilize a high-speed one-dimensional correction system which has been used in the past to partially obtain two-dimensional proximity. An object of the present invention is to provide a design pattern correction method and a design pattern correction system that can take advantage of the effects and can perform a sufficient correction near a corner or near a contact portion.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a recording medium storing a design pattern correction program for realizing the above method by a computer.

[0008]

(Structure) In order to solve the above problem, the present invention employs the following structure. (1) In a lithography process, in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, in a design pattern correction method in which the design pattern is corrected and used as mask data, a target to be corrected from the design pattern Extracting a correction target edge, and obtaining a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces with respect to the extracted correction target edge. 1
A step of performing a correction by moving an edge in the vertical direction by the dimension correction amount (one-dimensional correction); and a step of correcting the influence of the rounding of the corner portion on the edge near the pattern corner portion with respect to the corrected pattern. Obtaining a rounding correction amount, moving the edge in the vertical direction by the rounding correction amount, and performing the correction, and performing the correction in this order.

(2) In a lithography process, in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, a design pattern correction method for correcting a design pattern and using the corrected design pattern as mask data includes:
A step of obtaining a rounding correction amount for correcting the influence of rounding of the corner portion on the edge near the pattern corner portion of the design pattern, and performing correction by moving the edge in the vertical direction by the rounding correction amount; Extracting a correction target edge to be corrected from the corrected design pattern; and, with respect to the extracted correction target edge, changing a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge into a pattern composed of lines and spaces. The method includes a step of obtaining a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximation, and a step of correcting the edge to be corrected so as to move in a direction perpendicular to the edge by the one-dimensional correction amount.

(3) In a lithography step, in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, a design pattern correction method for correcting a design pattern and using the corrected design pattern as mask data includes:
Extracting a correction target edge from the design pattern; and obtaining a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces for the extracted correction target edge. hand,
A process of performing correction by moving the edge in the vertical direction, and obtaining a rounding correction amount and a margin for correcting the influence of rounding of a corner portion with respect to a pattern connected to a contact hole, and a margin for the rounding correction amount. A step of sizing the contact hole pattern by the sum of the sums, and calculating the logical sum of the pattern to be corrected and the sizing pattern, and performing correction in this order.

(4) In a lithography step, in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, the design pattern is corrected and used as mask data. A step of extracting a pattern connected to the contact hole as a correction target pattern, and a pattern of the contact hole by an amount obtained by adding a rounding correction amount for correcting the influence of rounding of a corner portion of the contact hole and a matching margin. Sizing, and a step of obtaining a logical sum of the extracted correction target pattern and the sizing contact hole pattern, and a pattern arrangement around an edge to be corrected with a line with respect to the pattern obtained by the logical sum. Approximate a pattern consisting of spaces A step of obtaining an obtained one-dimensional correction amount; and a step of performing correction by moving an edge of the correction target pattern in the vertical direction by the one-dimensional correction amount, and performing the correction in this order. .

(5) In a lithography process, in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, the design pattern is corrected and used as mask data in a design pattern correction system. Means for extracting a correction target edge to be corrected, and a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge with respect to the extracted correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces. Means for calculating the amount of rounding correction for correcting the influence of rounding of the corners on the edges near the pattern corners of the design pattern; and 1 for the edges other than the edges near the pattern corners. The one-dimensional correction is performed for the edge near the pattern corner by the amount of the dimensional correction. Amount that the sum of the rounding correction amount and the target correction edge is characterized by comprising and means for correcting to move to the edge perpendicular direction.

(6) A recording medium readable by a computer and storing a program for controlling a computer to generate a mask pattern by correcting a design pattern, wherein the program stores the design pattern in the computer. For extracting a correction target edge to be corrected from, and a one-dimensional correction obtained by approximating a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces for the extracted correction target edge A procedure for calculating the amount, and a procedure for calculating a rounding correction amount for correcting the influence of the rounding of the corner portion with respect to the edge near the pattern corner portion of the design pattern,
Except for edges near the pattern corners, the amount of one-dimensional correction is
For the edges in the vicinity of the pattern corners, a step of correcting the edge to be corrected so that the edge moves in the vertical direction by the sum of the one-dimensional correction amount and the rounding correction amount is executed.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention include the following. (A) The rounding correction amount is set to a constant value. (B) As a method of obtaining a rounding correction amount, a transfer simulation or an experiment is performed on a mask pattern that has been subjected to one-dimensional correction, and a transfer result of the corrected mask pattern is obtained at an edge position of a corner to be corrected. The deviation amount from the desired design position is obtained, and a value obtained by multiplying the deviation amount by minus is used as the correction value, or a value calculated based on the deviation amount is used as the correction amount.

(C) As a method of obtaining a rounding correction amount, a rounding correction amount is obtained for one or a plurality of representative two-dimensional pattern arrangements extracted from a design pattern in advance. When the relationship between the arrangement and the correction amount is stored in a database and the design pattern is corrected, a correction amount corresponding to the feature of the pattern arrangement is selected from the database and used as a rounding correction amount.

(D) In the pattern arrangement of the corner portion,
In a pattern in which a bias is applied at a predetermined interval, a pattern in which a bias is added to the fringe portion in increments of several nanometers is prepared, and a transfer experiment or simulation is performed to determine the amount of bias to be finished to a desired size. The amount of edge movement when the one-dimensional correction is performed in the pattern arrangement (one-dimensional correction amount) is obtained, and the value obtained by subtracting the amount of edge movement from the experimental bias amount is used as the rounding correction amount.

(Operation) In the configuration of (1), first, a one-dimensional correction is performed on the edge to be corrected in the mask data, and then the corner is corrected by the rounding correction amount. Therefore,
High-speed and high-precision correction can be performed without changing the conventional one-dimensional correction method.

In the configuration (2), first, the edge near the corner portion in the design pattern is moved by the rounding correction amount, and then the edge to be corrected in the mask data after the edge movement is one-dimensionally moved. Move by the correction amount and correct. That is, since the two-dimensional correction amount is added to the design pattern in advance, high-speed and high-precision correction can be performed without changing the conventional one-dimensional correction method.

In the configuration of (3), after performing one-dimensional correction on the edge to be corrected in the mask data, a rounding correction amount is added to the pattern connecting the contact holes, so that high-speed and high-precision correction can be performed. It becomes possible. That is, it is possible to easily correct a pattern connected to a contact hole in which the pattern size after transfer is reduced by only one-dimensional correction and the contact margin cannot be sufficiently obtained.

In the configuration of (4), the rounding correction amount is added to the pattern of the portion connected to the contact hole before the one-dimensional correction is performed in advance.
A sufficient contact margin can be secured, and high-speed correction can be performed.

In the configuration (5), similarly to (1), the edge of the corner portion is corrected by adding the one-dimensional correction amount and the rounding correction amount, and the other edges are two-dimensionally corrected. Since the correction by the one-dimensional correction amount is performed at a higher speed than in the case of, the correction can be performed at high speed and with high accuracy.

In the configuration of (6), as in (1), the edge of the corner portion is set to 1 by the computer.
Correction is performed by adding the dimensional correction amount and the rounding correction amount, and the other edges are corrected by the one-dimensional correction amount faster than the two-dimensional correction, so that high-speed and high-precision correction is possible. .

In the configuration (a), the rounding correction amount is set to a representative constant value, so that the time required for calculating the correction amount or for work can be reduced. further,
In the configuration of (b), the rounding correction amount can be obtained with high accuracy. Furthermore, in the configuration of (c), in a pattern arrangement near a typical corner portion or a portion connected to a contact hole, a rounding correction amount is obtained in advance and stored in a database, and the one-dimensional correction is performed in a database. By obtaining the correction amount with reference to the above, the time for correction calculation or work can be reduced. Further, in the configuration of (d), it is not necessary to perform a transfer experiment on the pattern data subjected to the one-dimensional correction.

[0024]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. In the following embodiments, all procedures are described as a system of procedures described in a programming language and operate on a computer. However, each procedure may be performed manually. Further, the edge movement amount used in the following description defines a direction in which the pattern is made thinner as a negative value, and a direction in which the pattern is made thicker as a positive value.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a design pattern correction system according to the embodiment.

The system includes a control unit 10 for performing various controls and a data storage unit 20 for storing various data.
And a display unit 31 and an input unit 32.
In the control unit 10, the correction target edge extracting unit 11
An edge to be corrected is extracted based on the design pattern data stored in the data storage unit 21. Also,
The rounding correction amount calculating means 12 calculates a rounding correction amount for the corner portion and the contact connection portion, and performs correction based on the calculated rounding correction amount. The calculated rounding correction amount is stored in the data storage unit 22. Then, the one-dimensional correction amount calculating means 13 calculates a one-dimensional correction amount for all the correction target edges by one-dimensional simulation, and performs correction based on the one-dimensional correction amount. The one-dimensional correction amount is stored in the data storage unit 23, and the corrected pattern data is stored in the data storage unit 24.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a basic operation procedure of the design data correcting method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. First, design data to be corrected is input to the system shown in FIG. 1 (Step S).
1). This design data is, for example, a pattern of a layer connected to a contact hole as shown in FIG.
It is not necessarily limited to this. The dimensions of the design data are not dimensions on the mask but dimensions on the wafer.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, an edge within a predetermined distance from the corner portion is extracted in order to perform correction in consideration of roundness (step S2). However, in this case,
The edge whose length becomes shorter is excluded from the target edge. Further, in the present embodiment, correction is performed only on the portion connected to the contact hole, and the other corner portions are excluded from the processing. The numbers in FIG. 4 represent the numbers of the extracted edges. The predetermined distance is 0.2 μm in this embodiment.

Other edge extraction methods include a method of extracting an edge of a pattern including a corner at a corner point E that is within a distance C and an edge vertically adjacent to the corner surface (FIG. 5). A method in which a rectangular area formed by the vertical and horizontal distances C from the point E is viewed in all directions, and edges are divided and extracted at the boundaries (FIG. 6). A method of extracting (FIG. 7) and a method of providing a plurality of thresholds for dividing an edge at a boundary of a region using another distance C2 from a corner point to improve the correction accuracy by making the edge to be corrected finer (FIG. 8).

Next, for each of the edges to be corrected extracted in step S2, a rounding correction amount for an edge near a corner is obtained (steps S3 to S5). First, a pattern in a rectangular area that is within a distance that is optically or processically affected from the center position of the edge to be corrected is extracted (FIG. 9A). Then, as in the procedure shown in FIG. 9, an edge to be subjected to one-dimensional correction is extracted from the extracted pattern (FIG. 9B), and one-dimensional correction is performed (FIG. 9C).

Here, the one-dimensional correction means that a transfer simulation or a transfer experiment is performed by regarding a pattern arrangement environment in a direction perpendicular to an edge to be corrected as a so-called one-dimensional pattern in which lines and spaces are arranged. An amount by which the edge should be moved (one-dimensional correction amount) is originally calculated, and the edge to be corrected is moved in the vertical direction by the correction amount to perform correction.

Although there are various methods, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, a distance R (a range affected by the optical proximity effect or a process In the process, a one-dimensional approximation pattern arrangement composed of lines and spaces (FIG. 10A) is obtained from a pattern arrangement (FIG. 10A) existing within a distance (hereinafter referred to as a range of the proximity effect) influencing between patterns.
(B)), and a transfer simulation is repeated to obtain a corrected shape with the highest finishing accuracy (hereinafter, this is referred to as simulation-based correction). And
The movement amount of the edge in the corrected shape with good finishing accuracy obtained by the simulation-based correction is set as the edge correction amount (FIG. 10C).

Next, a rounding correction amount is obtained.
Here, first, a function for estimating the displacement amount after the edge movement is created. With respect to the pattern in the rectangular area, three types (patterns 2, 3, and 4 in FIG. 9) of a pattern in which the edge to be corrected is shifted by ± 10% of the design rule in the direction perpendicular to the edge and an original pattern are prepared. 9 (d)), the three types of patterns and the one-dimensionally corrected pattern (pattern 1 in FIG. 9) are simulated (FIG. 9 (e)), and the deviation amount of the edge of interest from the design pattern is calculated. (FIG. 9 (f)), and a graph of the displacement amount as shown in FIG. 9 (g) is created. A slope a and an intercept b of a function y = ax + b of a straight line connecting plots of the respective displacement amounts are obtained. At this time, y indicates the amount of displacement of the finish, and x indicates the amount of movement of the edge of the design pattern. Here, the design rule ±
Although 10% was used, other values may be used.

When obtaining the correction amount, a value obtained by multiplying the displacement amount by minus is calculated by the function y = ax + b (x = (y−b)
/ A) is substituted for y to determine the edge movement amount x, and this value is used as the rounding correction amount. In addition, the function can be a polynomial function, the number of parameters can be increased, or complementing can be performed, so that the accuracy of the finish prediction can be further improved.

As another method, before correcting the influence of corner rounding on design data by using a method of obtaining a rounding correction amount, a correction value is obtained only for a pattern arrangement of a representative corner portion, and a pattern value is calculated. When the design data is corrected by preparing a database of pairs of arrangements and correction values, correction data closest to the pattern arrangement to be corrected can be extracted and corrected.

As still another method, it is conceivable to obtain a value for correcting the influence of rounding on the pattern arrangement of a certain typical corner portion, and to correct the value as a fixed correction value.

As still another method, in the pattern arrangement at the corner portion, a bias is applied to the fringe portion in a pattern added by applying a bias at a predetermined interval, for example, as shown in FIG. A pattern in which 0 to 15 nm is added in increments of 5 nm is prepared, a transfer experiment or a simulation is performed to determine a bias amount to obtain a desired dimension, and, on the other hand, an edge movement amount (1) when one-dimensional correction is performed in the pattern arrangement of the corner portion. It is also conceivable to use a value obtained by subtracting the edge movement amount from the experimental bias amount as the rounding correction amount. According to this, there is no need to perform a transfer experiment on the pattern data subjected to the one-dimensional correction.

The following Table 1 shows the rounding correction amounts obtained for each target edge. The unit is μm.
Further, the crosses in Table 1 indicate that the pattern could not be resolved, and that the amount of displacement could not be measured.

[0039]

[Table 1]

[0040]

[Table 2]

Subsequently, based on the correction values shown in Table 1, each target edge is moved in the vertical direction so that the pattern becomes thicker when the value is a positive value and the pattern is made thinner when the value is a negative value. Then, a pattern in which the influence of the rounding is corrected is created as shown in FIG. 12 (step S6).

Next, one-dimensional correction is performed by a one-dimensional simulation on the entire pattern in which the influence of rounding has been corrected (steps S7 to S11). At this time, in the present embodiment, minute edges are excluded from the correction target, and correction is performed on each of the edges to be corrected by applying the above-described one-dimensional correction method (FIG. 10). As a result, a mask pattern shown in FIG. 13 can be obtained. FIG. 15 shows the result of the transfer simulation. Further, FIG. 14 shows a transfer simulation in which only one-dimensional correction is performed without correcting the influence of rounding, and when compared with this drawing, the portion connected to the contact hole becomes more faithful to the design pattern, and It can be confirmed that the tolerance with the hall is large.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by adding a two-dimensional correction amount to a design pattern in advance for a pattern corner portion or the like, it is not necessary to reconstruct a conventionally used one-dimensional correction system. It is possible to correct the effect of the two-dimensional proximity effect of the pattern corner and the like while maximizing the high-speed processing which is an advantage of the one-dimensional correction. That is, the edge of the corner is corrected by adding the one-dimensional correction amount and the rounding correction amount,
Other edges are faster than two-dimensional correction.
Since the correction is performed by the dimension correction amount, high-speed and high-precision correction can be performed.

In the embodiment, the two-dimensional correction amount is added to the design pattern in advance, and the one-dimensional correction is performed on the edge to be corrected. However, another method as described below can be used. . That is, the same result is obtained by first performing one-dimensional correction by a one-dimensional simulation on the input pattern, and then correcting the rounding correction amount for an edge within a predetermined distance from the corner in post-processing. Is obtained.

According to another method, a one-dimensional correction amount and a rounding correction amount are simultaneously obtained for an edge within a predetermined distance from the corner portion, and a value obtained by adding both of them is corrected as a correction amount. By doing so, similar results can be obtained. However, in this case, it may be necessary to reconstruct the one-dimensional correction system.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a basic operation procedure of a design data correction method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the present embodiment, a method of correcting a pattern portion connected to a contact hole will be described using a design pattern shown in FIG. 17 as an example. The dimensions are the dimensions on the wafer. FIG. 17 shows a contact hole and a wiring layer connected to the contact hole. The correction target is a wiring layer connected to the contact hole. The contact allowance is 0.09 μm.

First, a rounding correction amount is obtained as preprocessing (steps S1 to S5). As a method of obtaining the rounding correction amount, for example, a typical contact portion pattern (FIG. 18A) is prepared, and
The dimension is corrected (FIG. 18B). Then, a transfer simulation or an experiment is performed on the pattern, and a shift amount of the edge of the contact pattern portion from a desired edge position is obtained (FIG. 18C). The correction amount is obtained as a value obtained by multiplying the displacement amount by minus (step S3). Alternatively, the correction amount may be obtained by another calculation method of the correction amount described in the first embodiment.

In the case of the present embodiment, the displacement amount of the edge of the contact pattern portion is -0.02125 μm (FIG. 19).
In P1), the correction amount is 0.02125 μm.
Further, one of the means is to obtain the correction amounts of P1 and P2 in FIG. 19, respectively, and to use the average value thereof as the correction amount.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 20 (a) and 21 (a), the contact pattern is sized by the sum of the correction amount and the contact allowance (step S4). In the case of the present embodiment, since the value of the contact allowance is 0.09 μm,
μm + correction amount 0.02125 μm = 0.11125 μm
Is the amount of sizing. Then, as shown in FIGS. 20 (b) and 21 (b), a logical operation OR is performed between the sized contact hole layer and the wiring layer to be corrected (step S5). This pattern is a pattern corrected for the influence of the rounding of the contact portion.

This method is used for the correction to make the pattern thicker, but in some cases, the correction to make the pattern thinner may be performed. In that case, (1) the contact hole layer is sized by adding the contact margin and the correction amount. (2) NAND the wiring layer to be corrected and the sizing contact layer. (3) The pattern after the 2nd NAND is reduced and sized by the maximum correction amount, the pattern around the contact is erased, and the pattern is expanded and sized by the maximum correction amount. (4) OR the pattern after sizing of 1 with the pattern selected in 3. By performing the steps (1) to (4), it is possible to perform the correction for thinning.

Next, one-dimensional correction is performed on the pattern corrected for the rounding correction amount (steps S6 to S6).
S10). The one-dimensional correction is a correction based on the one-dimensional correction method in the first embodiment. As a result, a correction pattern shown in FIG. 22 is obtained. FIG. 23 shows a transfer simulation result.

This method is very effective mainly when almost isolated patterns occupy the majority, such as logic patterns, and when the density is uniform. It is possible to correct the influence of the rounding of the contact margin on the accuracy.

As described above, in this embodiment, by performing one-dimensional correction by uniformly sizing the contact portion, it is possible to correct not only one-dimensional effects but also rounding effects. In this embodiment, the sizing is uniform, but the accuracy can be further improved by partially changing the sizing amount and the rounding correction amount according to the density.

In the present embodiment, by sizing the contact hole pattern by the sum of the rounding correction amount and the matching margin, a 2
The dimension correction amount is added to the design pattern, and the one-dimensional correction is performed by the one-dimensional simulation. However, another method as described below may be used. That is, after performing a one-dimensional simulation by performing a one-dimensional simulation on the pattern to be corrected, the contact hole pattern is sized by the sum of the one-dimensional correction amount and the amount corresponding to the rounding correction amount and the alignment margin. The same result can be obtained by ORing with the pattern to be corrected. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0056]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the effect of roundness in the image after transfer, that is, the two-dimensional proximity effect, is applied to the edge near the corner, and a high-speed one-dimensional correction method is applied. It is possible to perform high-speed and high-precision correction.

Further, it is not necessary to reconstruct the conventionally used one-dimensional correction system, and it is possible to perform correction using the two-dimensional proximity effect. Further, in the pattern after the one-dimensional correction, a pattern in the vicinity of the contact hole matching portion where the pattern size after the transfer becomes small can be corrected by a simple method.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a design pattern correction system according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a basic operation procedure of the design data correction method according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a design pattern used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing edges extracted in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first example of a method of extracting a corrected edge.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second example of a method for extracting a corrected edge.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a third example of a method for extracting a corrected edge.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a fourth example of the method of extracting a corrected edge.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a method for obtaining a two-dimensional correction amount.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a one-dimensional correction method.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a pattern added by applying a bias at a predetermined interval in a pattern arrangement of a corner portion in order to obtain a rounding correction amount.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a pattern in which the influence of corner rounding is corrected.

FIG. 13 is a view showing a pattern after correction.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a transfer result when only one-dimensional correction is performed.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a transfer result after correction according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a basic operation procedure of the design data correction method according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a view showing design data used in the second embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a method of obtaining a value for correcting the influence of rounding.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a positional shift amount of a representative pattern arrangement according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a method of correcting the influence of contact portion rounding.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing correction of the influence of rounding.

FIG. 22 is a view showing a pattern result after rounding correction and one-dimensional correction.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a transfer result of a correction pattern.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Control part 11 ... Correction target edge extraction means 12 ... Rounding correction amount calculation means 13 ... One-dimensional correction amount calculation means 20 ... Data storage part 21 ... Design pattern data storage part 22 ... Rounding correction data storage part 23 ... 1 Dimension correction data storage unit 24: Pattern data storage unit after correction 31 ... Display unit 32 ... Input unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Satoshi Tanaka 8 Shinsugita-cho, Isogo-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Toshiba Yokohama Works Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Sachiko Kobayashi 1st institution, Komukai Toshiba-cho, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa F-term 5F046 AA25 DA30 5F064 DD10 DD24 DD50 EE27 HH06 HH08 HH09

Claims (6)

[Claims] In a lithography process, in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, a design pattern is corrected and used as mask data. Extracting a correction target edge; and obtaining a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces with respect to the extracted correction target edge. Moving the edge in the vertical direction by the dimension correction amount to perform correction (one-dimensional correction); and for correcting the effect of the rounded corner at the edge near the pattern corner with respect to the corrected pattern. A step of obtaining a rounding correction amount and performing correction by moving the edge in the vertical direction by the rounding correction amount , Wherein the design pattern correction method characterized by performing this order correction. 2. A method for correcting a design pattern and using the same as mask data in a lithography step in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, the method comprising: For the edge, a rounding correction amount for correcting the influence of rounding of the corner portion is obtained, and the edge is moved in the vertical direction by the rounding correction amount to perform correction, and correction is performed from the corrected design pattern. Extracting a correction target edge to be corrected; and, for the extracted correction target edge, a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces. And moving the edge to be corrected in the direction perpendicular to the edge by the one-dimensional correction amount. Correcting the design pattern so as to make the design pattern correct. 3. A method for correcting a design pattern and using it as mask data in a lithography step to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, wherein a correction target edge is extracted from the design pattern. And obtaining a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating the pattern arrangement around the edge to be corrected to a pattern composed of lines and spaces for the extracted correction target edge, and moving the edge in the vertical direction. The rounding correction amount and the alignment margin for correcting the effect of the rounding of the corners on the pattern connected to the contact hole, and calculate only the rounding correction amount and the alignment margin. Sizing the contact hole pattern, Wherein the step of taking the logical sum of the pattern after grayed, a design pattern correcting method and correcting in this order. 4. A method for correcting a design pattern and using the same as mask data in a lithography step in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern; Extracting a pattern to be corrected as a correction target pattern; and sizing a contact hole pattern by an amount obtained by adding a rounding correction amount for correcting the influence of rounding of a corner portion of the contact hole and a matching margin. A step of obtaining a logical sum of the extracted correction target pattern and the sizing contact hole pattern; and, for the pattern obtained by the logical sum, a pattern arrangement around an edge to be corrected is configured by lines and spaces. One-dimensional correction obtained by approximating the pattern A step of obtaining an amount, and a step of performing a correction by moving an edge of the correction target pattern in the vertical direction by the one-dimensional correction amount, and performing the correction in this order. . 5. A method for correcting a design pattern and using the same as mask data in a lithography step in order to improve the fidelity of a pattern formed on a wafer with respect to a desired design pattern, wherein the design pattern is to be corrected. Means for extracting a correction target edge; and means for calculating a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating a pattern arrangement around the correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces with respect to the extracted correction target edge. Means for calculating a rounding correction amount for correcting the influence of rounding of the corner portion with respect to the edge near the pattern corner portion of the design pattern; and the one-dimensional correction amount except for the edge near the pattern corner portion. The one-dimensional correction amount and the rounding correction amount for the edges near the pattern corners. Means for correcting the edge to be corrected to move in a direction perpendicular to the edge by the sum of 6. A recording medium readable by a computer and storing a program for controlling a computer so as to generate a mask pattern by correcting a design pattern, wherein the program is stored in the computer from a design pattern. A procedure for extracting a correction target edge to be corrected;
Calculating a one-dimensional correction amount obtained by approximating the pattern arrangement around the edge to be corrected with respect to the extracted correction target edge to a pattern composed of lines and spaces;
A procedure for calculating a rounding correction amount for correcting the influence of rounding of a corner portion on an edge near a pattern corner portion of a design pattern, and a one-dimensional correction amount for an edge other than an edge near the pattern corner portion and near a pattern corner portion And correcting the edge to be corrected so that the edge moves in the vertical direction by the sum of the one-dimensional correction amount and the rounding correction amount. The stored recording medium.