JP2003100617A - Method of generating electron beam lithography data - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of generating electron beam lithography data which can improve efficiency of the lithography process by shortening the accumulated moving distance of stage. SOLUTION: In this method of generating electron beam lithography data, the pattern design data is subjected to the data conversion process to generate a plurality of pattern data and job deck and store the pattern information to a data file in the step S1 . A plurality of pattern data and job decks are read from the data file in the step S2 . Subsequently, assembled pattern data including a plurality of pattern data and job decks are generated in the step S3 . In the step S4 , the assembled pattern data are divided to a plurality of new pattern data and job decks. Moreover, in this step S4 , a plurality of new pattern data and job decks are specified so that the stage does not move in the X and Y directions in the predetermined orientation and does not pass again the field already drawn and thereby the assembled pattern data are divided into a plurality of new pattern data which are adjacently provided with each other.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of creating electron beam drawing data, and more specifically, a method of creating electron beam drawing data for improving drawing efficiency when a pattern is drawn by an electron beam drawing apparatus. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In manufacturing a semiconductor device, a photomask for exposure is often manufactured by electron beam lithography. In electron beam lithography, a resist film sensitive to an electron beam is formed on the surface of a substrate, and an electron beam drawing device is used to scan the resist film with a narrowed electron beam based on the design data of the integrated circuit. A pattern is drawn, and this is developed to form a fine pattern, for example, a photomask is formed. Recently, electron beam lithography is often used to directly pattern a wiring layer on a substrate.

The electron beam drawing apparatus 10 is basically shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, an electron gun 12 as an electron beam source, an electron optical system 14 for controlling the deflection and beam shape of an electron beam, an object to be drawn,
For example, a mask material W is placed, and the X-direction and the Y-direction are taken on the XY plane.
The stage 16 that moves freely in any direction
A driving device (not shown) that drives in the Y direction and the Y direction, and a control device that controls the driving devices of the electron optical system 14 and the stage 16 are provided. In the electron beam drawing apparatus 10,
Based on the drawing data read from the design data, the electron beam emitted from the electron gun is controlled to draw a pattern on the resist film on the mask material W placed on the stage 16. For the mask material, for example, a quartz substrate for a photomask,
A silicon wafer or the like is used. When drawing with the electron beam drawing apparatus 10, the stage 16 is sequentially moved for each drawing unit area called a field F.

As the drawing data, pattern design data is converted into data, and as shown in FIG. 5, pattern data, which is a set of data defining a pattern to be drawn, and a pattern mask corresponding to the pattern data. It is composed of control data called a job deck for instructing the position and arrangement on the material W. The pattern data is held in a file called a pattern file. The electron beam drawing apparatus reads out one pattern data from the pattern file held in the storage device of the electron beam drawing apparatus, and exposes the electron beam at a specific position on the mask material W in a specific arrangement according to an instruction of the job deck. This exposure process is repeated until the processing of all the data in the pattern data is completed, and when one pattern data is completed, the process shifts to the process of the next pattern data continuously.

By the way, as a method of holding the drawing data in the storage device of the electron beam drawing apparatus, a method of holding the drawing data by a plurality of pattern files and one job deck, and one pattern data There is a method of holding drawing data in one pattern file and one job deck summarized in the above. In the former method, the pattern data of the same pattern is held in one pattern file, and the pattern data of the same pattern is arranged at a plurality of locations according to an instruction from the job deck, thereby reducing the data amount of the entire pattern. You can Therefore, normally, the drawing data is often held by the former method rather than the latter method.

For example, a mask pattern has a first pattern of the same figure pattern arranged at four positions of a specific area on the mask material, and a second pattern of figures surrounding the first pattern.
And a pattern of. The pattern file is a pattern file of graphic data of the first pattern, for example, a pattern file of PF ₁ as shown in FIG. 6A, and a pattern file of graphic data of the second pattern surrounding the first pattern. , A PF ₂ pattern file as shown in FIG. 6B, for example.

The job deck for arranging the pattern data held in the pattern files PF ₁ and PF ₂ is
For example, as shown below, the coordinate data indicating the placement of the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₁ at the position _{(x 1, y 1) ~} (x 4, y 4), the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₂ And coordinate data instructing to place it at the position (x ₅ , y ₅ ). The coordinate data is the coordinates of the center position of the pattern data. PF ₁ (x ₁ , y ₁ ) PF ₁ (x ₂ , y ₂ ) PF ₁ (x ₃ , y ₃ ) PF ₁ (x ₄ , y ₄ ) PF ₂ (x ₅ , y ₅ )

Here, referring to FIG. 7, the conventional electron beam drawing apparatus 10 is used to draw the above-mentioned figure pattern according to the position designation of the above-mentioned job deck and the pattern data of the pattern files PF ₁ and PF ₂ . The method will be described.
When drawing a pattern, if the pattern data is divided into a plurality of pattern files, the pattern is drawn according to the coordinates defined by the job deck for each pattern file. The job decks of the pattern files PF ₁ and PF ₂ have X when the origin is at the upper left corner of the mask material.
If the coordinates are arranged in the descending order of the direction and the Y direction, (x ₁ ,
y ₁ ), (x ₂ , y ₂ ), (x ₅ , y ₅ ), (x ₃ , y
₃ ) and (x ₄ , y ₄ ). When drawing, first
Job deck of the pattern file PF ₁ (x ₁ , y ₁ )
According to the above, the stage 16 is moved and positioned, and the first pattern is drawn at the position (x ₁ , y ₁ ) based on the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₁ . Then, according to the jobdeck pattern file _{PF 1 (x 2, y 2} ), to move the stage 16, to position the position of the second pattern based on the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₁ (x _2, y ₂ ).

Next, the stage 16 is moved according to the job deck (x ₅ , y ₅ ) of the pattern file PF ₂ ,
After positioning, the second pattern is drawn at the position (x ₅ , y ₅ ) based on the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₂ . Then, sequentially according to the job decks (x ₃ , y ₃ ) and (x ₄ , y ₄ ) of the pattern file PF ₁ ,
The stage 16 is moved and positioned, and the first pattern is drawn at the position (x ₃ , y ₃ ) and the position (x ₄ , y ₄ ) based on the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₁ .

[0010]

As described above, in the conventional drawing method, when the pattern data is divided into a plurality of pattern files, drawing is performed for each pattern file. Therefore, the stage often moves a plurality of times to the same field position depending on the drawing range of the pattern data of each pattern file and the arrangement order of the pattern data. For example, in the above example, after drawing the first pattern with the center positions of (x ₁ , y ₁ ) and (x ₂ , y ₂ ) based on the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₁ , the pattern file PF ₂ Based on the pattern data of, the second pattern is drawn with (x ₅ , y ₅ ) as the center position. At that time, based on the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₂ , in order to draw the upper left corner portion (indicated by LU in FIG. 7) of the second pattern, the stage is moved in the opposite direction and the upper right portion of the mask material is moved. It is necessary to focus and expose the field. Therefore, the stage is moved through the stage position when the field of the pattern file PF ₁ (x ₁ , y ₁ ) is irradiated.
In other words, the stage moves multiple times at the same field position.

As in the above-mentioned example, when the fields to be drawn are overlapped among a plurality of pattern data,
The stage moves many times in the same field position. For example, in the above example, the stage moves two or more times in the same field position. As a result, when the stage is moved many times, it takes time to move and position the stage, and it is difficult to improve the efficiency of the drawing process.

Therefore, in order to reduce the number of movements of the stage, a method of combining a plurality of pattern files and a job deck into one pattern data is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
1-65085, JP-A-10-41224, and the like. In the above-mentioned publication, a plurality of pattern files are combined into one pattern file to prevent the stage from moving repeatedly at the same field position. That is, when applied to the above example, P
By combining F ₁ and PF ₂ , a pattern file PF ₃ is created as shown in FIG. 8, and the job deck is PF ₃ (x
₆ and y ₆ ). When the pattern is drawn, the pattern is drawn according to the pattern data of one pattern file PF ₃ , so that the stage does not move to the same field position again.

However, this method requires a combining process for combining a plurality of pattern files and the job deck to form one combined pattern data. Therefore, the time required for the combining process and the combining process are required. The time required to verify whether or not was executed correctly becomes enormous, and as a result, the total throughput is likely to deteriorate. In particular, since the size of pattern data is increasing due to the recent high-density integration and large-scale integration of semiconductor devices, the time required for synthesis processing and the time required for verification require ever longer time. Become. This makes it difficult to improve the efficiency of pattern drawing by the electron beam drawing apparatus.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of creating electron beam drawing data which shortens the total moving distance of the stage and improves the efficiency of the drawing process.

[0015]

In order to prevent the drawing path from becoming redundant, the present inventor considers that the stage does not pass again the path passing through the field already drawn. It was Then, the present inventor, instead of creating one composite pattern data proposed in the above-mentioned publication, changes the entire pattern into a plurality of small patterns so that the stage does not move the field already drawn. The idea is to create a pattern file and job deck for each small pattern
Through trials, the present invention was invented.

In order to achieve the above object, based on the above knowledge, the method of creating electron beam drawing data according to the present invention (referred to as the first invention method) is the X-Y plane in the X and Y directions. A method of creating drawing data for an electron beam drawing apparatus, comprising a stage that moves for each field of an object to be drawn, and drawing a pattern on the object to be drawn placed on the stage by an electron beam, the method comprising: A step of performing a data conversion process on the design data to create a plurality of pattern data and a job deck and storing them in a data file; and a step of reading the plurality of pattern data and the job deck from the data file, Next, the plurality of pattern data are divided into a plurality of new pattern data, and new data corresponding to the new plurality of pattern data is created. Creating a Budekku, and a division step, in the dividing step, the stage,
It is characterized in that the new plurality of pattern data and the new job deck are defined so as to move in a predetermined direction in the X direction and the Y direction so as not to pass through an already drawn field again.

By omitting the step of storing in a data file and the step of reading out a plurality of pattern data and job decks from the data file, the pattern design data is subjected to a data conversion process to obtain a plurality of pattern data and job decks. When creating, the set pattern data may be created immediately.

In this case, another method of creating electron beam drawing data (referred to as a second invention method) according to the present invention is XY.
Drawing data for an electron beam drawing apparatus that includes a stage that moves in the X direction and the Y direction in a plane for each field of the drawing object and draws a pattern on the drawing object placed on the stage with an electron beam is provided. A method of creating, wherein the pattern conversion data is subjected to a data conversion process to create a plurality of pattern data and pattern data arrangement information, and then the plurality of pattern data is added to a new plurality of data. Dividing into individual pattern data, creating a new job deck corresponding to a plurality of new pattern data, and a dividing step, wherein in the data conversion processing step, the pattern data arrangement information is taken into consideration. Output a plurality of new pattern data divided so as to minimize the movement of the stage. The new job deck corresponding to the new plurality of pattern data is defined such that the tage moves in a predetermined direction in the X direction and the Y direction and does not pass through the field already drawn. I am trying.

In the first and second invention methods, a plurality of pattern data are divided into a plurality of new pattern data. When dividing, the plurality of pattern data are divided into a plurality of new pattern data so that the stage moves in a predetermined direction in the X direction and the Y direction and does not pass through the field already drawn. As a result, when a pattern is drawn by the electron beam drawing apparatus, it is possible to shorten the cumulative moving distance of the stage that moves in field units and avoid redundant movement. As a result, the drawing time can be shortened and the adjacent fields can be drawn almost continuously, so that the drawing accuracy of the patterns connected between the fields is improved.

In the first and second invention methods, the object to be drawn may be a mask material or a wafer for direct patterning, as long as it is an object to be drawn with an electron beam. Also, the first
In the second invention method, when dividing into a plurality of new pattern data, as long as the stage moves in a predetermined direction in the X direction and the Y direction so as not to pass the already drawn field again, the division is performed. There are no restrictions on the method of. For example, in the dividing step, each pattern based on a plurality of new pattern data is set as a set of constituent points, and each constituent point is defined by an XY coordinate system whose origin is the upper left part of the object to be drawn. A plurality of new pattern data and a new job deck corresponding to each new pattern data are defined so that at least one of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of a point always increases, and a plurality of new job decks adjacent to each other are defined. Pattern data.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described specifically and in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiment 1 In this embodiment, when the electron beam drawing apparatus 10 described above is used to draw an electron beam, the method of creating electron beam drawing data according to the first invention method is used to create the above-described pattern drawing data. It is an example of the applied embodiment. FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a procedure for carrying out the method of creating electron beam drawing data of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a plurality of new pattern files created by the method of the present embodiment and a job deck. It is a figure which shows and. First, as shown in FIG. 1, in step S ₁ , the pattern design data is subjected to data conversion processing, a plurality of pattern data and a job deck for designating the arrangement of each pattern data are created, and the pattern information is written in the data file. Memorize Next, in step S ₂ , a plurality of pattern data and a job deck designating the arrangement of each pattern data are read from the data file. The pattern data of the pattern file PF _{1 and} the pattern data of the pattern file PF ₂ are as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, respectively, as in the conventional case.

Then, in step S ₃ , the plurality of pattern data are divided into a plurality of new pattern data and job decks. In step S ₃ , a plurality of new pattern data and a new job deck are defined so that the stage does not pass through the field already drawn by moving in a predetermined direction in the X direction and the Y direction, and the stage is processed. Is divided into a plurality of new pattern data adjacent to.

In this embodiment, when each constituent point of each pattern is defined based on a plurality of new pattern data in the XY coordinate system whose origin is the upper left part of the object to be drawn, A plurality of new pattern data adjacent to each other are defined by defining a plurality of new pattern data and a new job deck corresponding to each new pattern data so that at least one of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate always increases. Divide into data. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the pattern file P
The pattern data of F ₂ is the new nine pattern data PF ₄ , PF ₅ , PF ₆ , PF ₇ , PF ₈ , PF ₉ , P.
It is divided into F ₁₀ , PF ₁₁ , and PF ₁₂ .

The job deck of the four pattern data PF ₁ is, as in the conventional case, PF ₁ (x ₁ , y ₁ ) PF ₁ (x ₂ , y ₂ ) PF ₁ (x ₃ , y ₃ ) PF ₁ ( x ₄ and y ₄ ).

The divided pattern data PF ₄ , PF ₅ ,
The job decks of PF ₆ , PF ₇ , PF ₈ , PF ₉ , PF ₁₀ , PF ₁₁ and PF ₁₂ are as follows. PF ₄ (x ₅ , y ₅ ) PF ₅ (x ₆ , y ₆ ) PF ₆ (x ₇ , y ₇ ) PF ₇ (x ₈ , y ₈ ) PF ₈ (x ₉ , y ₉ ) PF ₉ (x ₁₀ , Y ₁₀ ) PF ₁₀ (x ₁₁ , y ₁₁ ) PF ₁₁ (x ₁₂ , y ₁₂ ) PF ₁₂ (x ₁₃ , y ₁₃ )

When drawing, for example, in the following order:
Draw a pattern. Pattern data PF_Four→ pattern
Data PF_Five→ Pattern data PF₁(X₁, Y₁) →
Pattern data PF₆→ Pattern data PF₁(X₂,
y₂) → Pattern data PF₇→ Pattern data PF₈
→ Pattern data PF₉→ Pattern data PF
₁(X₃, Y₃) → Pattern data PF_Ten→ PF₁(X
_Four, Y_Four) → Pattern data PF₁₁→ Pattern data P
F₁₂. The pattern drawing order is not limited to this, and for example,
Pattern data PF_Four→ Pattern data PF₇→ putter
Data PF₁(X₂, Y₂) → Pattern data PF ₆
→ Pattern data PF₁(X₁, Y₁) → Pattern day
PF_Five→ Pattern data PF₈→ ...

In the present embodiment, a plurality of new pattern data and a new job deck corresponding to each new pattern data are defined so that at least one of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of each constituent point always increases. Then, it is divided into a plurality of new pattern data adjacent to each other. As a result, during electron beam drawing, the stage 16 of the electron beam drawing apparatus 10 moves in a predetermined direction in the X direction and the Y direction,
Since the field already drawn is not passed again, the total movement distance of the stage 16 becomes the shortest, and the drawing efficiency is improved. Further, since it is possible to draw adjacent fields almost continuously, the drawing accuracy of the patterns connected between the fields is improved.

Embodiment 2 In this embodiment, when the electron beam drawing apparatus 10 described above is used to draw an electron beam, the method for creating the electron beam drawing data according to the second invention method is used to draw the pattern data described above. It is an example of the embodiment applied to the creation of. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a procedure for carrying out the method for creating electron beam drawing data of the present embodiment. In the present embodiment example, the first embodiment example
Storing in the data file in step S ₁ of
Also, the step of reading the plurality of pattern data and the job deck in step S ₂ from the data file is omitted. Then, in the present embodiment example, step S ₁ is
This is a data conversion processing step of performing data conversion processing of pattern design data to create a plurality of pattern data and pattern data arrangement information. The next step S ₂ is
This is a dividing step of dividing a plurality of pattern data into a plurality of new pattern data and creating a new job deck corresponding to the new plurality of pattern data.
With the above configuration, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.

[0029]

According to the method of the present invention, in a dividing step of dividing a plurality of pattern data into a plurality of new pattern data and a new job deck corresponding to each new pattern data, the stage is set to a predetermined position. New pattern data and a plurality of new pattern data that are adjacent to each other by defining new plural pattern data and new job deck so as not to pass the already drawn field again by moving in the X and Y directions. Split into. This makes it possible to reduce the time required for data processing and reduce the data size when compared with the conventional method of creating drawing data in which a plurality of pattern files are combined into one pattern file when drawing with an electron beam drawing apparatus. can do. Further, there is an effect that the distance of stage movement can be shortened and the drawing time can be shortened as compared with another conventional method of creating drawing data in which a plurality of pattern files are drawn for each file. Further, since it is possible to draw adjacent fields almost continuously, the drawing accuracy of the patterns connected between the fields is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a procedure for carrying out a method of creating electron beam drawing data according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a plurality of new data files created by the method of the embodiment and a job deck.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for carrying out a method of creating electron beam drawing data according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing a configuration of an electron beam drawing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of drawing data.

6 (a) and 6 (b) are diagrams showing respective pattern files constituting a plurality of pattern files.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing conventional drawing data composed of a plurality of patterns.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another conventional drawing data including a plurality of patterns.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Electron beam drawing device, 12 ... Electron gun, 14 ...
Electro-optics, 16 ... stage.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electron beam comprising a stage that moves in the X-Y plane in the X and Y directions for each field of an object to be drawn, and an electron beam for drawing a pattern on the object to be drawn placed on the stage by an electron beam. A method of creating drawing data for a drawing device, the method comprising: converting data of design data of a pattern, creating a plurality of pattern data and a job deck, and storing the data in a data file; Reading the pattern data and the job deck from the data file, and dividing the plurality of pattern data into a plurality of new pattern data, and adding a new job deck corresponding to the new plurality of pattern data. And a step of dividing the stage in the X direction and the Y direction in a predetermined direction. The new plurality of pattern data and the new job deck are defined so as not to pass through the field that has already been drawn by moving the new plurality of pattern data adjacent to each other. A method for creating electron beam drawing data, characterized by dividing into pattern data. 2. An electron beam comprising a stage which moves in the X and Y directions in the X and Y directions for each field of the object to be drawn, and which draws a pattern on the object to be drawn placed on the stage by an electron beam. A method of creating drawing data for a drawing device, comprising: converting data of design data of a pattern to create a plurality of pattern data and pattern data arrangement information; Dividing into a plurality of pattern data, and creating a new job deck corresponding to the new plurality of pattern data, has a dividing step, and in the dividing step, the pattern data arrangement information is added. The plurality of pattern data are divided so as to minimize the movement of the stage, and the plurality of new pattern data adjacent to each other are output. In addition, the new job deck corresponding to the new plurality of pattern data is defined so that the stage moves in a predetermined direction in the X direction and the Y direction and does not pass again through the field already drawn. A method for creating electron beam drawing data, characterized by: 3. In the dividing step, when each constituent point of each pattern based on the new plurality of pattern data is defined in an XY coordinate system having an upper left portion of the drawing object as an origin, The new plurality of pattern data and the new job deck corresponding to the new pattern data are defined so that at least one of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of each constituent point always increases, and the plurality of the plurality of pattern data are defined. 3. The method of creating electron beam drawing data according to claim 1, wherein the pattern data of 1 is divided into the plurality of new pattern data adjacent to each other. 4. The electron beam drawing data creation according to claim 1, wherein in the dividing step, the new plurality of pattern data covering the entire drawing area of the object to be drawn is created. Method.