JPH02112002A - Automatic controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the burden of the user of an automatic controller by interposing a data processor equipped with a compiler which converts a source program written in a simple language into a program of a machine language level composed of bit data groups between the user and automatic controller. CONSTITUTION:A device I to be controlled is connected with a CPU 4 for control through a system bus 5 and I/O interfaces 7a and 7b for control and an input-output device 2 is connected to the bus 5 through a general-purpose I/O interface 6. The source program for controlling this automatic controller is written in a simple language and a data processor is equipped with a compiler which converts the source program into a program of a machine language level composed of bit data groups independently from the control program of the device I to be controlled. Therefore, all instructions and conditional data for featuring the control content of the automatic controller are written in the simple language and the data processor can be used as a man-machine interface which reduces the burden to the user of this automatic controller.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to computer control technology, controlled devices,
The present invention relates to a technique that is particularly effective when applied to an automatic control device comprising an interface, a CPU, a memory, and an input/output device for humans.1 It relates to a technique that is particularly effective when applied to a control method for, for example, an electron beam lithography device or a focused ion beam device.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, as a system for changing the control content and conditions of an automatic control device, for example, a process required by a semiconductor designer by narrowing down an ion beam and irradiating the beam to an arbitrary location on a semiconductor wafer chip. A system has been proposed that can accomplish most of the processing (SPIE
Vo 1.632El ectron-Beam,X
-Ray, &Ion-Beam Tsahniku
es f.

r Submicromater Litho
graphies V (1986) pp85~
See pp92).

However, this technology does not provide control information for controlling the device.
A data processing device with dedicated software is required to create the condition data.For example, as a data structure for irradiating a specified location with the aforementioned ion beam,
As shown in the figure, the minimum unit is 1/1000 μm, and the X and Y coordinates are displayed using 64 consecutive bits.

In addition, in the columns indicated by symbols ``■'' to ``■'' in the figure, machining conditions such as special codes, machining widths, and doses are entered in correspondence with bits. For bit data like this,
Processing speed is fast because the condition data held within the CPU can be sent to the controlled device as is.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, if a data structure using bit data as described above is used as a man-machine interface description specification, a heavy burden will be placed on the human side. That is, there are problems in that it is troublesome to create device control data, a dedicated data processing device is required, changes in control content and condition data are complicated, and mistakes are made.

An object of the present invention is to provide a control interface description specification for easily changing control contents and conditions in a computer-based automatic control device, thereby reducing the burden on the device user and reducing mistakes. The objective is to provide a control method.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Means for Solving the Problems] Representative inventions disclosed in this application will be summarized as follows.

In other words, in an automatic control device that can be controlled by a computer, a data processing device is interposed between one person and the automatic control device when creating control contents and condition data, and the source program that controls the automatic control device is written in ASCII characters. The program is written in a simple language, and the data processing device is equipped with a compiler that converts the source program written in the simple language into a machine language level program consisting of a group of bit data, independent of the control program of the controlled device. It is something to do.

[Operation] According to the above means, all the commands and condition data that characterize the control contents of the automatic control device are written in a simple language, so the burden on the human side as a man-machine interface is lightened, and the control contents, Conditions can be easily changed, errors are reduced, and control data for the automatic control device can be created and changed using a computer separate from the automatic control device. Furthermore, system expansion such as online control using another computer can be achieved.

[Example] An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 shows the basic blocks of an automatic control device to which the present invention is applied. In the automatic control device of this embodiment, a computer I10 interface is interposed between a controlled device 1 such as a focused ion beam device and an input/output device 2 consisting of a CRT display and a keyboard. That is, the controlled device [1 is connected to the control CPU 4 via the system bus 5 and the control I10 interfaces 7a and 7b, and the input/output device 2 is connected to the system bus 5 via the general-purpose machine 10 interface 6. It is connected. Furthermore, other input/output devices 8 such as a light source and a printer are connected to the system bus 5. Control CP
U4 reads control data consisting of control details, condition data, etc. of the controlled device 1 from the magnetic disk device 3, and supports creation of a job file for controlling the controlled device 1.

In this embodiment, a control job (JJi' (start program)) consisting of control instructions (command codes) and condition data that characterize the control contents of the controlled device 1 is written in ASCII characters, and the magnetic disk drive This control jib file is stored in the form of a file in the control CPU 4.
X+Ms-D.

It is created on the CRT screen of the input/output device 2 with the support of the editor function of a standard O8 (operating system) such as S (both are simplified).

However, when writing a control job in ASCII characters, write one or two characters that humans can intuitively understand.
It is convenient to prepare a table in which a predetermined control command or condition data is defined as a list of codes larger than characters, and conversion to machine language level control bit data is preferably performed according to this table.

The control CPU 4 takes in the control data created on the input/output device 2 and diagnoses whether there are any grammatical description errors and whether the control content and condition data satisfy the restrictions of the controlled device 1. It is designed to have functions.

If there is a problem as a result of the diagnosis, the operator corrects it on the input/output device 2 with the assistance of the editor. If there are no problems with the control data, it is converted into bit data by the compiler of the control CPU 4 so that it can be handled at high speed as control data for the controlled device ll.
The data is stored on the magnetic disk 3 once.

Control of the controlled device 1 is executed by the control CPU 4 reading out the bit data from the magnetic disk device 3 and supplying it to the controlled device 1 via the I10 interfaces 7a and 7b. In the system of this embodiment, the data obtained from the controlled device 1 or the tester is fed back to the CPU 4 and output to the input/output device 2 for display, and the operator changes the condition data after looking at the result. The controlled device w1 can be controlled by the control data.

Note that the above compiler is UNIX or MS-D.

It is intended to be implemented on a standard O8 such as S.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of a control job made up of control data according to the present invention. The control job in this example is designed to facilitate data creation and reduce the amount of data.
It has a hierarchical structure similar to computer programming languages. One job is composed of files A, B, C, D, etc., which are composed of multiple commands and data groups, and each file has the same or similar other files Aj, Bl, CI, [ )l,...
It is composed of... Furthermore, all constituent elements such as commands and data that make up each file are written using ASCII characters.

In the figure, instructions such as conditional branch C, repetition D, and operation E may not necessarily be used depending on the contents of the controlled device, but they can be used to easily change control contents and conditions. Can be expanded.

The specific format of each file shown in FIG. 2 is as follows.

■The "control file specification" should be in the format of label:variable (parameter), for example. The label is expressed as a list of one or more ASCII characters, and the variables are 0 to 9.

This control file specification allows multiple control condition specifications.

■The "control condition specification" has, for example, a label:variable format. Here, it is assumed that the variables can be expanded as variable 1, variable 2, . . . variable n. The label is expressed using ASCII characters different from ■ above. The variables are 0 to 9 and (period), and the control condition specification is 0, which corresponds to the control command and condition of the control device.
For example, it is assumed that it is possible to specify such things as stopping a controlled device and capturing feedback data from a controlled device.

■ "Conditional branch" is, for example, IF variable 1 discriminant variable 2 control file specification 1, ELS
The six discriminants in the format of E Control File Specification 2 are =, <, >, ≦, and ≧, which are used in arithmetic operations. If variable 1 discriminant variable 2 holds true, control file designation 1 is executed, and if it does not hold, control file designation 2 is executed.

(2) "Repetition" is, for example, a FOROR variable (1), (2) a different number (2), and (2) a control file designation. Control file specification is executed as long as variable 1 and discriminant variable 2 hold true.

■ "Operations" shall be able to perform four arithmetic operations on variables and defined function operations.

In this embodiment, the variables are arithmetic variables and the operations are arithmetic operations, but the variables may include logical variables and the operations may include logical operations.

According to the above interface specifications, it is also possible to create a job file with the above data structure described using ASCII characters on a personal computer system.

The next page shows a specific example of a job file for a focused ion beam device created according to the interface description specifications described above.

ap:Z! 11:L(J td: 1.200E+03; Table 1 Table 1 shows the definition of control commands consisting of ASCII characters used in the job file, and the characters marked with ★ in the job file. The columns indicate the features of the command strings between ☆ and ☆. Also, as can be seen from Table 1, the symbol indicated by b= is a control file specification command, and the symbol following b: 40 of
02 indicates a file number, and the contents of this file are described as id:4002 on the 36th line (third line from the bottom). This shows that the job file has a hierarchical structure.

In the above file, the 10th to 18th lines are for cutting, the 20th to 22nd lines are for notch processing, and the 24th to 32nd lines are for connection window opening. Each process is described.

Note that the above job file uses conditional branching.

Repeat and calculation commands are not used.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a procedure for implementing the function of checking job data for grammatical description errors by the control CPU 4.

First, the CPU 4 sequentially reads entries (commands and parameters for one line) from the job file, determines whether the read command corresponds to any of the registered commands a "'-z, and If they do not match, a command error is displayed on the CRT screen of the input/output device 2.

Also, if the command read from the file is a registered one, check whether the description method of the parameters following the command matches the description method specified for the command. 1 If it is incorrect, check the CRT screen. On the other hand, if there is no error in the notation of the parameter, it is checked whether the parameter conditions (coordinates, etc.) satisfy the specified conditions, and if one condition is not met, the parameter condition is displayed. CRT error
Display it on the screen.

The above procedure is performed for all commands in the job file, and the process ends when there are no unchecked entries.

FIG. 4 shows an LS including the focused ion beam device of this embodiment.
The schematic configuration of the I automatic processing system is shown. This system aims to change the logic of LSIs and analyze failures by automatically cutting and connecting the wiring patterns of LSIs based on external design data.

An automatic control device 10 including a focused ion beam device 1 to which the present invention is applied is connected to a host computer system 30 via a local network 20. In this system, a host computer system 30 operates a focused ion beam device 1 and collects data using a tester or the like.
The data is decompiled and displayed on a CRT in a simple language, the processing conditions are changed while referring to the data, the job file is modified, and the data is sent to the control unit 11 of the automatic control device 10 to focus ion beams. Beam devices can now be operated under different conditions.

In the figure, FCF is a control job file for the focused ion beam device 1, and FLF is a logging file that is fed back from the automatic control device 10 to the host computer system 30.

As the scale of LSI increases and process technology advances, it becomes difficult to determine final processing conditions and processes using simulation alone. In such a case, using the apparatus of this embodiment allows you to easily change the job file, so you can easily find the optimal processing conditions and process by processing the LSI while changing various processing conditions. becomes.

As explained above, in the above embodiment, in an automatic control device that can be controlled by a computer, a data processing device is interposed between a person and the automatic control device when creating control contents and condition data, and the automatic control device is controlled. The source program to be executed is written in a simple language such as ASCII characters, and the data processing device uses a compiler that converts the source program written in the simple language into a machine language level program consisting of a group of bit data to control the controlled device. Since it is provided independently from the program, the commands and condition data that characterize the control content of the automatic control device are all written in a simple language, which reduces the burden on humans as a man-machine interface. Control contents and conditions can be easily changed, errors are reduced, and even a computer system separate from the automatic control device can be used.
Control data for this automatic control device can be created and changed. Further, there is an effect that system expansion such as online control by another computer can be achieved.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the control job file written in a simple language is created using the editor function of the standard O8, so a dedicated editor other than the standard O8 is not required.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained above based on Examples, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above Examples and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. Nor. For example, in the above example,
Although ASCII characters are used as a simple language for describing control data, the present invention is not limited to this, and other programming languages may also be used.

In the above explanation, the invention made by the present inventor was mainly applied to an automatic control device having a focused ion beam device as a controlled device, which is the background field of application of the invention, but the present invention is not limited thereto. It can be used in general automatic control devices equipped with controlled devices that can be program-controlled by a computer.

[Effects of the Invention] The effects obtained by typical inventions disclosed in this application are briefly explained below.

That is, it is possible to easily change the content and conditions of control in an automatic control device using a computer, thereby reducing the burden on the device user and reducing mistakes.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an automatic control device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a file configuration diagram showing a configuration example of a control job file according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a control job file according to the present invention. A flowchart showing an example of a procedure for checking grammatical errors, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an automatic processing system including the automatic control device of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a control data structure in a conventional automatic control device. FIG. 1... Focused ion beam device (controlled device), 3.
... Magnetic disk device, 4 ... Control CPU (computer), 5 ... Bus, 10 ... Automatic control device, 20 ... Local network, 30 ...
-Host computer. Figure b Figure b

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic control device comprising a computer and a controlled device programmable by the computer,
A source program for controlling the controlled device is written in a simple language, and the source program can be created on the computer, and the computer converts the source program into a machine language level control program. 1. An automatic control device comprising: a compiler function that is independent of a control program for a controlled device, and the controlled device is controlled by this machine language level program. 2. The automatic control device according to claim 1, wherein the computer has a function of checking the source program written in a simple language for grammatical errors and restrictions on device control. 3. The automatic control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the simplified language is written using ASCII characters. 4. The computer has a function of converting feedback data from the controlled device into data at a simple language level, and is capable of incorporating this data into the source program to control the controlled device. The automatic control device according to claim 1, 2 or 3. 5. An automatic processing system in which a computer of an automatic control device including a computer and a controlled device programmable by the computer is connected online to a separate host computer, the automatic processing system comprising: has a source program written in a simple language, and the computer is capable of creating the source program, and the computer has a compiler function to convert the source program into a control program at the machine language level. Job data for the processing equipment, which is independent of the control program of the controlled equipment and created by a host computer that comprehensively evaluates feedback data from the processing equipment and data from another system, is sent to the automatic control equipment. An automatic processing system characterized in that the processing device is controlled by transmitting data to a computer.