JPH04291463A - Data converting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the data conversion efficiency by updating the exposure data at the corrected areas only. CONSTITUTION:A polygon G1 does not include an oblique line component including six apexes and is expressed in the segment data including the data P1-P6 on the apex coordinates. Meanwhile the polygon G1 is divided into graphics Ga and Gb which are expressed in the data on the standard apex coordinates Pa and Pb, the heights Ha and Hb, and the widths Wa and Wb, i.e., the vectors. A 1st table stores the data P1-P6, and a 2nd table stores the data on both graphics Ga and Gb, i.e., the coordinates Pa and Pb, the heights Ha and Hb, and the widths Wa and Wb. Then a 3rd table stores the identification data on the polygon G1 and the identification data Ba and Bb on the divided rectangles forming the polygon G1 with the relation secured between both identification data.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data conversion apparatus, and more particularly to a data conversion apparatus for generating exposure data from semiconductor mask design data. Generally, at the LSI design stage, CAD (computer aided design) is used.
After creating the mask design data in step n), this data is converted to create exposure data for mask manufacturing.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of conventional data conversion. The data stored on disk A is LSI mask design data (hereinafter referred to as design data) created by CAD.
The various circuit elements constituting the LSI are expressed using polygonal line segment data. For example, in the case of a simple rectangle, line segment data consists of four vertices P1, P2, P3, P
It is expressed by 4 coordinate data.

On the other hand, the data stored on disk B is
Exposure data required for mask manufacturing.The design data is divided into several types of simple shapes, such as triangles and trapezoids (including squares), which are the exposure units of the exposure equipment, and each divided shape is expressed as vector data. Ru. For example, in the case of a quadrilateral, data includes the coordinates of the reference vertex Pa and the lengths Ha and Wa of the two sides that sandwich the vertex Pa.

[0004] The data conversion unit performs data conversion between such line segment data and vector data. Data conversion is performed when creating new exposure data from design data or when a part of design data has been modified. It is executed at times.

[0005]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, since such conventional data conversion is performed by "batch processing", for example, even if the number of modified parts is extremely small, all data including unmodified parts are subject to conversion. Therefore, there was a problem that the conversion efficiency was extremely poor.

[0006] Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to improve conversion efficiency by updating exposure data only for the corrected portions.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention. G1 is an arbitrary polygon, and is an example of a polygon that has six vertices and does not include diagonal line segments. Polygon G1 is expressed by line segment data having vertex coordinate data P1 to P6. On the other hand, Ga and Gb are each divided figure (quadrilateral in this example) when the polygon G1 is divided, and the divided figures Ga and Gb are the reference vertex coordinates Pa and Pb, the height Ha, Hb, and the width. It is expressed as data of Wa and Wb, that is, a vector.

The first table stores the data P1 to P6 of the vertex coordinates, and the second table stores the data of the divided figures Ga and Gb, that is, the vertex coordinates Pa and P6.
b, heights Ha, Hb, and widths Wa, Wb, and the third table stores polygon identification data (G1) and identification data (Ba, Bb) of divided figures forming the polygon.
) and store it in association with

[0009]

[Operation] In such a configuration, any polygon (for example, G
1), the coordinate data P1 to P6 of G1 is extracted from the first table according to the content of the modification, updated, and re-stored. Also, if you want to correct the exposure data along with this correction, search the third table and
The identification data (Ba, Bb) of the divided figure related to is searched out, and the vector data of Ba and Bb is taken out from the second table, updated, and re-stored.

[0010] Therefore, it is possible to update the exposure data only to the modified portion, and it is possible to improve the conversion efficiency.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings. 2 to 4 are diagrams showing an embodiment of a data conversion device according to the present invention. First, the system configuration will be explained. In FIG. 2, 10 is a first external disk that stores mask design data (design data) created by CAD, 11 is a second external disk that stores exposure data for mask manufacturing,
20 is a data conversion processing unit that mutually converts design data and exposure data, and the data conversion unit 20 includes a CPU 21 that selectively executes various programs (a) to (g) as described below; It includes a terminal device 22 including a display section 22a and an input device (keyboard, mouse, etc.) 22b, and an internal disk 23 including a first table T1, a second table T2, and a third table T3, which will be described later. (a) Line segment data input program (MIN1) (b) Line segment data output program (MOUT1) (c) Line segment data division program (MCNV1) (d) Divided figure merging program (MCNV2) (e) Figure editing program ( M
EDT) (F) Divided figure input program (MIN2) (
g) Divided figure output program (MOUT2) Figure 3 is Figure 2
This is a functional block diagram in which the CPU 21 performs input/output processing of design data, figure editing processing for line segment data of polygons, conversion processing from polygons to divided figures (or vice versa), and input/output of divided figure data. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram when processing is executed.

[0012] Here, the internal disk 23 has at least three
There are two tables, namely: ■ a first table T1 that stores polygon line segment data included in the design data; ■ a second table T2 that divides the polygon and stores vector data of each divided figure; A third table T3 is provided in which identification data and identification data of divided figures forming the polygon are stored in association with each other.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing the contents of each table. The first table T1 is provided with areas for each of the three types of polygons G1, G2, and G3 shown as an example. For example, the area of the polygon G1 includes the coordinates (x1y1) (x2y2) of each vertex of the polygon G1. )...(x4y4) is stored. In addition, the second table T2 includes vector data for each figure obtained by dividing the three types of polygons G1, G2, and G3, that is, taking one divided figure B1 as an example, reference vertices Coordinates (xy), height H1 and width W
1 data is stored.

Furthermore, the third table T3 contains the above three
Identification data of each type of polygon (G1, G2, G3) and identification data of divided figures (B1, B2, . . . B6) forming each of the three types of polygon are stored in association with each other. For example, in the case of one polygon G2, since three rectangles B2, B3, and B4 form this polygon G2, G2, B2, B3, and B4 are grouped.

In such a configuration, when converting design data to exposure data for the first time, the design data is read into the CPU 21 from the first external disk 10, and
Line segment data for each polygon included in the design data is extracted and stored in the first table T1. Then, start the line segment data division program (MCNV1) and
The line segment data in the table T1 is converted into vector data and stored in the second external disk 11.

At the time of data conversion, the vector data for each divided figure of the polygon is stored in the second table T2.
At the same time, the identification data of the polygon and the identification data of the divided figures forming the polygon are stored in a third table T3.
Store in. Next, if you want to modify some of the design data (
This is the main point of the present invention).

In this case, first, operate the terminal device 22 to specify a polygon (for example, G2) to be corrected using the figure editing program (MEDT), and select the line of the corresponding polygon G2 from the first table T1. The line segment data is searched, the line segment data is corrected, and the first table T1 is updated. Next, start the line segment data division program (MCNV1),
Using the identification data G2 of the polygon to be corrected as a keyword, search the third table T3 for identification data B2, B3, and B4 of the divided rectangles forming the polygon G2,
Using these identification data B2, B3, and B4 as clues, the second
The vector data of the divided rectangle is extracted from table T2.

Finally, the divided figure merging program (MCN
V2), correct the vector data of each rectangle B2, B3, and B4 based on the corrected line segment data, and
update table T2. As described above, according to this embodiment, when modifying some line segment data, only the corresponding vector data can be updated. This is because the third table T3 is provided that associates the identification data of polygons included in the design data with the identification data of the divided figures forming each polygon. This is because table T3 is used as an intermediary.

Therefore, when modifying a part of the design data, it is possible to leave the unmodified exposure data as is and update the data only to the modified part, which greatly improves conversion efficiency. can. In the above embodiment, the conversion from design data to exposure data has been described, but the same effect can be obtained in the reverse direction, that is, the conversion from exposure data to design data.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the third table T
3 is provided separately, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a column for association may be provided in the first table T1 or the second table T2. Alternatively, association data may be added to the identification data of the polygon or the identification data of the divided figures. In this way, the disk capacity can be reduced and table management becomes easier, which makes it more preferable.

[0021]

According to the present invention, the third table stores the identification data of a polygon and the identification data of the divided figures forming the polygon in association with each other, and when the shape of the polygon is changed, the third table Since the design data and exposure data are updated using the table as an intermediary, the exposure data can be updated only for the corrected portions, and conversion efficiency can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a table model diagram of one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of data conversion in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

T1: first table T2: Second table T3: Third table

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A data conversion device for converting an arbitrary polygon represented by line segment data into graphic data represented by a vector, comprising: a first table storing line segment data of the polygon; a second table that stores vector data of each divided figure; and a third table that stores identification data of the polygon in association with identification data of divided figures forming the polygon; A data conversion device characterized in that when changing the shape of the polygon, the first and second tables are updated using a third table as an intermediary.