JPH06163372A - Exposure data processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an exposure data processing method of a mask ROM integrated circuit wherein a time for exposure data preparation is reduced. CONSTITUTION:This method is an exposure data preparation processing method of a mask ROM integrated circuit wherein only a pattern of a ROM part for storing specified information according to write data by a single kind is different and a pattern excepting the ROM part is the same. A cell formation layer for generating a pattern stored in the ROM part is divided into a plurality of small regions of a specified size. ROM pattern generation processing in each small region is carried out respectively by parallel processing by a plurality of processing means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an exposure data processing method, and more specifically, to exposure data for creating an exposure data file required for exposure at high speed, which is suitable for use in the field of mask ROM production, for example. Regarding processing method. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, for example, in a semiconductor memory or the like, many exposure data processing methods for creating a memory have been developed.

Among others, a mask ROM (Read Only Memory)
The usage of s is rapidly increasing due to higher performance, higher reliability, and lower prices. Especially, with the rapid development of Japanese information processing, for example, CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) displays and printers, etc. The use amount of the large-capacity mask ROM as the Kanji pattern generating memory is increasing. Under such circumstances, there is a demand for shortening the delivery time of mask ROM integrated circuit products.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 8, an exposure pattern of a mask ROM integrated circuit is composed of a main pattern 101 which constitutes the integrated circuit and a peripheral pattern 102 for alignment. Is RO
M pattern 103 and other decoder patterns 10
4, a sense amplifier pattern 105 and a bulk pattern (not shown) such as an input / output circuit pattern.

In order to manufacture a mask ROM integrated circuit, a multi-layer mask 106 as shown in FIG. 9A is required. When the mask ROM type is different, the multi-layer mask 10 is used.
6 are all different, but mask ROM in the same type
Even if the data to be written in is different, the same mask can be used for the other masks 106 ″, only the mask 106 ′ of the cell forming layer is different among the multilayer masks 106.

That is, the ROM pattern 10 shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 9B, a plurality of ROM cells 107 are arranged in a matrix in 3, and word lines 108 and bit lines 109 are provided above the ROM cells 107. The cell forming layer mask 106 ′ is a mask for forming a pattern of a cell forming window (via hole) 110 for connecting the bit line 109 to each ROM cell 107 in the ROM pattern 103. For example, the cell forming window 110 With R
The OM cell 107 stores "1", and the ROM cell 107 having no cell formation window 110 stores "0".

This is because even in the decoder pattern 104, the sense amplifier pattern 105, etc.
The mask of 06 'is the word line 108 and the bit line 109.
, And the pattern of the cell forming window 110 that connects the decoder pattern 104 and the sense amplifier 105, but this portion is fixed for each product type. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an outline of exposure data creation of a conventional mask ROM integrated circuit, FIG.
1 is a flowchart showing a conventional exposure data creation procedure.

The cell forming layer will be described below. As shown in FIG. 10, exposure data is created by a truth value data file 201 that stores truth value information that represents the contents of the ROM write data, and a bulk information library 202 that stores bulk data information prepared for each product type. , Divided into exposure deflection area units and sorted in exposure order
A mask ROM exposure data creation process 20 is performed by a computer having one CPU (Central Processing Unit) based on each data file and library of the placement information library 203 that stores the OM cell pattern placement information.
4 is performed to generate mask ROM exposure data 205.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 11, first, a truth value data file 201 and a bulk information library 20.
2. The placement information library 203 is read in order (step 101, step 102, step 103), and the RO in the small area is used as a processing unit for the cell formation layer until the area disappears in the exposure order with the small area corresponding to the deflection size of the exposure apparatus as a processing unit.
M pattern generation processing is performed (step 104, step 105), bulk data in the bulk information library 204 is added to create exposure data to be supplied to the electron beam exposure apparatus (step 106), and the exposure data is output. (Step 107).

[0009]

However, in such a conventional exposure data processing method, the RO divided into exposure deflection area units and sorted in the exposure order.
Since the cell layout information of M is sequentially read and the ROM pattern in the small area is sequentially repeated, there is a problem as described below.

That is, the mask ROM integrated circuit must create the exposure data of the cell forming layer each time the content of the write data changes, but if the types are the same, the layers other than the cell forming layer can be created once. Can be used in common. That is, the substantial processing time depends on the exposure data creation time of the cell formation layer.

Since the cell formation layer randomly generates a ROM pattern according to the contents of the write data, conventionally, as described above, the cell arrangement of the ROM is divided into the exposure deflection area units and sorted in the exposure order. The process of sequentially reading the information and generating the ROM pattern in the small area is repeated sequentially. But,
Recently, under the situation that the mask ROM integrated circuit is in the mega class, the conventional method has a problem that it takes a long time to create the exposure data and the delivery time of the product is limited.

[Object] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an exposure data processing method for a mask ROM integrated circuit, which shortens the time for creating exposure data.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the exposure data processing method according to the present invention is different in only the pattern of the ROM section for storing the predetermined information according to the write data in a single type, except for the ROM section other than the ROM section. A method for creating exposure data for a mask ROM integrated circuit having the same pattern, wherein a cell forming layer for generating a pattern of the ROM section is divided into a plurality of small areas of a predetermined size, and a ROM pattern is generated in each small area. The processing is configured to be processed in parallel by a plurality of processing means.

In this case, the plurality of processing means are second processing means provided outside the first processing means for performing the main processing and connected to the first processing means via an information transmission path,
RO that is the truth value information representing the contents of the write data in the ROM section, the bulk data information prepared for each product type, divided into exposure deflection area units, and sorted in the exposure order.
Each piece of M cell pattern arrangement information is transmitted to the second processing means, and exposure data for each small area created by the ROM pattern generation processing of the second processing means is transmitted to the first processing means. It is effective to obtain the exposure data by reconstructing the exposure data of the entire cell formation layer based on the exposure data of each small area received by the one processing means.

Further, the first processing means inputs / outputs data to / from the second processing means, so that the R for one small area is read.
It is preferable that the OM pattern generation processing is sequentially assigned to each processing means in the standby state in the second processing means, and the processing load on each processing means in the second processing means is averaged.

[0016]

In general data processing, calculation is sequentially performed, and data is processed and output based on the result. However, in the case of mask ROM manufacturing data processing, since the data to be processed is created in advance and there is no dependency between the fields divided into small areas, each area is highly independent, and calculations for data processing are performed. The processing does not influence the processing in the middle of the process.

Specifically, the position information to be arranged and the data to be arranged are created before the processing, and do not change during the processing. In other words, the determined pattern is arranged at the position determined based on the already determined data, and further, since independent data is used for each field,
Since it does not depend on other processing results and does not interfere with each other, the same results can be obtained regardless of where they are arranged.

Therefore, in the present invention, the cell forming layer for generating the pattern of the ROM portion is divided into a plurality of small areas of a predetermined size, and the ROM pattern generation processing in each small area is performed in parallel by a plurality of processing means. To be done.
That is, as shown in FIG. 12A, the ROM pattern generation process which has been conventionally performed by the sequential process is
As shown in (b), since the processing is performed in parallel, the exposure data creation time is greatly shortened.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration for realizing an exposure data processing method according to the present invention. First, the configuration will be described.

The hardware for implementing the present invention is
It is roughly divided into a host side computer 1 which is a first processing means having one CPU and a storage device, and a cell side computer 2 which is a second processing means having a plurality of CPUs. The host-side computer 1 controls the entire processing, and the cell-side computer 2 is a parallel computer that performs parallel calculation based on the data transmitted from the host-side computer 1.

The exposure data file has a structure in which the entire surface of the chip is divided into exposure deflection areas peculiar to the exposure apparatus, and the exposure data in the small areas are stored in the exposure order of the exposure apparatus. The generation of the ROM pattern in the cell forming layer can be independently processed in each small area. Focusing on this point, the present invention allows each CPU in the cell-side computer 2 to be in charge of the ROM pattern generation processing in the exposure deflection area as shown in FIG. In order to smoothly perform the processing of each CPU in the side computer 2, the input data of the processing in the CPU, the output data are received, and the operating status of the CPU is monitored.

FIG. 3 shows an outline of the processing of the present invention. First, in the host-side computer 1, the cell arrangement information of the ROM is divided for each exposure deflection area (step 1), the truth value data file, the bulk information file, and the cell arrangement information are read and read by each CPU of the cell-side computer 2. It is transmitted (step 2, step 3, step 4).

The cell-side computer 2 receives the truth value data file, bulk information file, and cell placement information.
While being stored (step 5, step 6, step 7), one small area is assigned to one CPU,
Thus, the ROM pattern generation process in the assigned area is performed (step 8). In the mask ROM, the number of patterns and the pattern density in the small area are random, so that the processing time of each CPU is arbitrary. Therefore, the cell-side computer 2
In each of the CPUs, the small area exposure data created when the ROM generation processing is completed is transmitted to the host computer 1 (step 9).

When the host computer 1 receives the small area exposure data, the data of the next area is transmitted to the vacant CPU, and the supervisory control is performed so that the processing of all the areas is performed efficiently. In this way, the host computer 1 receives all the small area exposure data (step 10), and then creates each of these exposure data in the order of exposure of the exposure apparatus to obtain the exposure data of the entire cell formation layer (step 11). ).

That is, in the present invention, the ROM pattern arrangement information of the cell forming layer is divided into the ROM pattern arrangement information in the exposure deflection area which can be independently processed, and this is sent to each CPU of the parallel computer, and the small area is contained. The ROM pattern generation processing is performed in parallel, and the exposure data of the entire mask ROM integrated circuit is obtained by collecting the individual exposure data. For this reason, if the number of CPUs of the parallel computer is N, a speedup of at most N times is achieved as compared with the conventional sequential processing, and the exposure data creation processing time of the mask ROM integrated circuit is significantly shortened. .

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of exposure data generation of a mask ROM integrated circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a parallel processing system for mask ROM manufacturing data processing using a parallel computer. The parallel computer is a computer that performs a plurality of processes in parallel in order to speed up the process, and in this embodiment, it is composed of a host side computer 1 and a cell side computer 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cell-side computer 2 is provided with CPUs each having a computer function, and receives data divided for each cell as a main part of processing,
Processing is performed in parallel for each cell independently. The host-side computer 1 communicates with the cell-side computer 2, sends information to be processed by the cell-side computer 2,
It is a computer for receiving the result processed by the cell-side computer 2 and reconstructing the data, and controls the entire process.

The host computer 1 and the cell computer 2 have different processing configurations, and there are a plurality of cells and the same processing program, but the information from the host computer 1 Upon receipt, the corresponding CPU in the cell-side computer 2 carries out the processing for its charge. In FIG. 4, the arrangement information library 11 is divided by the arrangement information library division processing 12 into processing units in which the cell-side computer 2 can easily perform processing, that is, small areas corresponding to the exposure change range, and the division arrangement information library 13 Is created.

Along with this, the bulk information library 14 and the truth value data file 15 are sent to the data input / output processing 16 of the host side computer 1, and the host side computer 1 which has obtained various data makes the cell side computer 2
Is sent to the data input / output processing 21. In the mask ROM exposure data creation process 22, the placement information library, bulk information library, and truth value data file held in the data input / output process 21 are read.

The mask ROM exposure data is created in the data input / output processing 21 of the cell side computer 2 and sent to the data input / output processing of the host side computer 1.
The mask ROM exposure data sent to the host computer 1 is divided by each cell, and the mask R
The mask data is combined by the OM exposure data combination processing 17, and the combined whole data is output as the mask ROM exposure data 18.

The exposure data creating procedure of this embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. First, in the host computer 1, a placement information library for parallel processing in area units is extracted and divided for each area (step 2
1) The divided placement information library is stored (step 22). Next, the truth value data file is read and transmitted (steps 23 and 24), and the bulk information library is similarly read and transmitted (steps 25 and 26).

Then, the divided arrangement information library is transmitted to the cell-side computer 2 for each unit divided in the scanning order of the electron beam exposure apparatus (step 27), and when transmission is performed for the number of cells, the cell-side computer 2 is transmitted. Exposure data is received (step 28). At this time, no cell has finished processing, and when there is no exposure data to be received by the host computer 1, the host computer 1 waits for reception.

The received exposure data are sequentially stored (step 29), and if there is unprocessed divided arrangement information, it is transmitted (step 30). Until all the divided arrangement information is transmitted, the above-mentioned steps 28 to 30 are carried out. The processes up to are repeated (step 31). Since the cell-side computer 2 is performing parallel processing, the exposure data that is sent is in the order in which the processing is completed earlier, and the reception timing of the exposure data created by the cell-side computer 2 at the host-side computer 1 varies. Become.

For this reason, when all the exposure data are received from the cell side computer 2 (step 32), they are rearranged in the correct order (step 33), and are combined into one exposure data and then output (step 34). .
On the other hand, in the cell side computer, the following processing is performed by a plurality of Cs.
It is done by PU.

That is, first, the truth value data file is received (step 41), the bulk information library is received (step 42), and the layout information library for one area is received (step 43). Data creation processing is performed (step 44), and the exposure data for one area created thereafter is transmitted to the host computer 1 (step 45).

Then, the above steps 43 to 45 are repeated until there is no transmission data from the host computer 1 (step 46). Through the above processing, the arrangement information library divided by the host computer 1 is transmitted in the scanning order of the electron beam exposure apparatus (not shown) as indicated by arrow A in FIG. As shown by, the exposure data file creation process is performed for all cells.

Next, the exposure data file of the cells for which processing has been completed is transmitted to the host computer 1 as indicated by the arrow C in FIG. 7, and the host computer 1 stores this in the processing end order and As shown by an arrow D in FIG. 7, the unprocessed arrangement data library is transmitted again to the CPU corresponding to the cell, and the processing is repeated. As described above, in the present embodiment, the processing time required to create the exposure data can be significantly shortened as compared with the conventional method, and the delivery time of the product can be shortened, which is extremely useful in practice.

Although the above embodiment has been described taking the processing for the mask ROM as an example, the present invention is not limited to this, and the content of the processing does not depend on the previous result, for example, it can be applied to the manufacturing data processing of RAM. Is.

[0039]

Therefore, in the present invention, the cell forming layer for generating the pattern of the ROM portion is divided into a plurality of small areas of a predetermined size, and the ROM pattern generation processing in each small area is performed by a plurality of processing means. Can be processed in parallel. Therefore, since the ROM pattern generation processing is performed by parallel processing, it is possible to greatly reduce the time for creating exposure data.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration for realizing an exposure data processing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a processing outline of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of processing of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of exposure data creation of a mask ROM integrated circuit of one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an exposure data creation procedure of one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the processing content of one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the processing content of one embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a mask ROM integrated circuit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a multilayer mask and a ROM cell.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an outline of exposure data creation of a conventional mask ROM integrated circuit.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a conventional exposure data creation procedure.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating sequential processing and parallel processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Host-side computer (first processing means) 2 Cell-side computer (second processing means) 101 Main pattern 102 Peripheral pattern 103 ROM pattern 104 Decoder pattern 105 Sense amplifier pattern 106 Multi-layer mask 107 ROM cell 108 Word line 109 Bit line 110 Cell formation window

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Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A ROM of a single type, which stores predetermined information according to write data, differs only in the RO
A method of creating exposure data for a mask ROM integrated circuit, wherein patterns other than the M portion are the same, wherein a cell forming layer for generating the pattern of the ROM portion is divided into a plurality of small areas of a predetermined size, R in
An OM pattern generation process is performed by a first processing unit that performs a main process and a plurality of second processing units that are provided outside the first processing unit and that are connected to the first processing unit through an information transmission path. The truth value information representing the contents of the write data in the ROM section, the bulk data information prepared for each type, the RO divided into exposure deflection area units and sorted in the exposure order.
Each piece of M cell pattern arrangement information is transmitted to the second processing means, and exposure data for each small area created by the ROM pattern generation processing of the second processing means is transmitted to the first processing means. An exposure data processing method, characterized in that the exposure data of the entire cell formation layer is reconstructed based on the exposure data of each small area received by one processing means to obtain the exposure data. 2. The first processing means sequentially performs ROM pattern generation processing for one small area to each processing means in a standby state in the second processing means by data input / output with the second processing means. 2. The exposure data processing method according to claim 1, further comprising allocating and averaging the processing loads on the respective processing means in the second processing means.