JPH1165085A - Manufacture of pattern transfer mask and manufacture of semiconductor mask data - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten a drawing time through a raster drawing device without spoiling a data handling time so as to enhance the throughput of a photomask forming process. SOLUTION: A design data 1 having a design pattern data is converted to a data readable by a raster drawing device 5 and is compressed, and pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D having mask pattern data A', B', C', D' respectively corresponding to design pattern data A, B, C, D are formed. The mask pattern data in the pattern files are transferred to a preparation device, and the transferred pattern files formed into one file so that the master pattern data in the pattern files are formed into the mask data 3 of one file. Thereafter, the mask data 3 of one file is read by the drawing device 5 so as to draw mask patterns.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention implements a method of forming a mask for pattern transfer, and a method of forming the mask for pattern transfer, for example, which speeds up processing of mask data to be read by a raster drawing apparatus. At this time, the present invention relates to a method of creating semiconductor mask data that can further speed up the processing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, in particular, when forming a pattern transfer mask by making a raster drawing apparatus perform drawing, conventionally, as shown in FIG. Data conversion processing is performed on the design data 1 having the various kinds of design pattern data A, B, C, and D by the data conversion device 2 and the mask pattern data A ′, B ′, which can be directly read by the drawing device.
It is converted into one file of mask data 3 having C ′ and D ′. Then, the mask data 3 thus obtained is obtained.
Is transferred to a data preparation device 4 that prepares the drawing device to read the data, and the mask data 3 is further transferred from the data preparation device 4 to the drawing device 5. Then, the transferred mask data 3 is read by the drawing apparatus 5, and based on the read mask data 3, drawing is performed by the raster drawing apparatus 5 to form a pattern transfer mask.

In recent years, photomask data used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices has been increasing in scale as the density of semiconductor devices has increased. Therefore, the mask data 3 created from the design data 1 also has the mask pattern data A ', B', C ', D' corresponding to the design pattern data A, B, C, D as they are. For this reason, the capacity is naturally large, so that much time is required for the conversion in the data conversion device 2 and the transfer of the mask data 3 to the data preparation device 4 from now on. Is lowering.

[0004] Under such circumstances, it is necessary to perform data compression processing to increase the efficiency of data handling of mask data, that is, transfer of the mask data, and in recent years, this data compression processing has been commonly performed. It is becoming. In the data compression process, a part with many repetitions is extracted, this repetition part is made into one pattern file, information such as arrangement and arrangement is added to these pattern files, these are arranged, and the This is a processing method for performing compression so that restoration is possible.

[0005] When forming a pattern transfer mask by causing a raster drawing apparatus to perform drawing based on the mask data subjected to such data compression processing, first, as shown in FIG. The design data 1 having A, B, C, and D is subjected to data conversion processing and data compression processing by the data conversion / compression device 6 and mask pattern data A ′ or B ′ readable by the drawing device.
Each pattern file 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D having C ', D' and adding information such as arrangement and arrangement is obtained.

Next, the pattern files 7A, 7A
The data of B, 7C, and 7D is transferred to the data preparation device 4, and the data of the pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D are further transferred from the data preparation device 4 to the drawing device 5. Then, the transferred pattern file 7A,
7B, 7C, and 7D are read by the drawing apparatus for each of the pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D, and the read mask pattern data A ', B', C ', and D' are read.
The drawing is performed by the raster drawing apparatus 5 based on the above, and a pattern transfer mask is formed.

[0007]

However, by performing such data compression, a plurality of pattern files 7A,
7B, 7C, and 7D, and when the raster drawing device 5 draws the data based on the mask pattern data A ', B', C ', and D' in these files, as shown in FIG. The drawing time is much longer than when drawing is performed based only on the data of (1).

[0008] If this is data stored in one file, the raster drawing apparatus 5 converts the beam into the data shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6A, drawing is performed while scanning like a single stroke, but in the case of a plurality of files, the order of pattern arrangement data is A, B, C as shown in FIG. Then, A'1 → A'2 → A'3 → A'4 →
B'1 → B'2 →... C′3 → C′4 are drawn in this order. Therefore, in the drawing apparatus, the moving distance of the beam stage becomes longer, and one pattern is changed to another pattern. This is because a setting time for positioning the stage at the time of moving to is required, and the time required for drawing becomes long (slow). In the present invention, the file shown in FIG. 6A is a drawing pattern file, and the file shown in FIG. 6B is a drawing job file indicating a drawing procedure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to reduce a drawing time by a raster drawing apparatus without impairing a data conversion time and a data handling time. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of forming a pattern transfer mask with improved throughput, and a method of producing semiconductor mask data that can further reduce the drawing time when implementing this method.

[0010]

According to the method of forming a pattern transfer mask of the present invention, mask data that can be read by a raster drawing apparatus is read by a raster drawing apparatus, and raster data is read based on the read mask data. In making the system drawing apparatus perform drawing, and when forming a pattern transfer mask, first, design data having a plurality of types of design pattern data is converted into data readable by a raster drawing apparatus and compression processing is performed. Form a plurality of types of pattern files having mask pattern data corresponding to each of the design pattern data,
The mask pattern data in the obtained pattern file is transferred to a preparation device that prepares for reading by a raster drawing device, and then the transferred plural types of pattern files are stored in one file in the preparation device. And converts the mask pattern data in the pattern file into mask data of one file. Then, the obtained mask data of one file is read by a raster drawing apparatus.
Making the raster drawing apparatus perform drawing is a means for solving the above problem.

According to this method of forming a pattern transfer mask, the design data is converted and compressed to form a plurality of types of pattern files, which are transferred to the preparation device. In this case, the conversion time and the transfer time are shorter than in the case in which the conversion is performed. Also, since a plurality of types of pattern files are converted into one file by a preparation device, the mask pattern data in the pattern file is converted into one file of mask data, and the one-file mask data is read by a raster drawing device to perform drawing. , Compared to reading that data from multiple files,
The drawing time by the raster drawing apparatus is shortened.

Further, in the method of producing semiconductor mask data according to the present invention, when one drawing pattern file is produced from a plurality of pattern files obtained by compressing a plurality of pattern data, the plurality of pattern files are The solution to the above problem is to create one drawing pattern file by connecting connectable repetition information using the repeatability described inside.

According to this method of creating semiconductor mask data, a single drawing pattern file is created by connecting connectable repetition information using the repeatability described in a plurality of pattern files. Therefore, the data size of the obtained drawing pattern file can be further reduced.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining one embodiment of a method for forming a pattern transfer mask according to the present invention. In the example shown in FIG. 1, similarly to the example shown in FIG. 5, first, a plurality of types of design pattern data A and B which are made of, for example, the GDSII Stream Format and cannot be directly read by the raster drawing device 5. , C, and D are subjected to data conversion processing and data compression processing by the data conversion / compression device 6, and have mask pattern data A 'or B', C ', and D' that can be read by the drawing device. Then, pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D to which information such as arrangement and arrangement is added are obtained. Here, as a specific process for converting each design pattern data A, B, C, D of the design data 1 into mask pattern data A ′, B ′, C ′, D ′, FIGS. As shown in b), the graphic data such as logical operation, resize processing, black-and-white inversion, mirror inversion, scaling processing, clipping processing, and minute figure processing are performed to divide the design data 1, and then these divided data are format-converted. Is performed.

Next, the pattern files 7A, 7A
The data of B, 7C, and 7D is transferred to the data preparation device 9 via the server 8 as shown in FIG. 3, for example. In the data preparation device 9, the transferred pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D are converted into one file, and these pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D
The above described mask pattern data A ', B', C ', D'
Into the mask data 3 of one file as shown in FIG.

Next, the obtained mask data 3 of one file is transferred from the data preparation device 9 to the raster drawing device 5, and the raster drawing device 5 reads the mask data 3. Then, the raster system drawing apparatus performs drawing based on the read mask data 3, and further performs wet etching or the like to form a pattern transfer mask made of photoresist or the like on a wafer fixed on a stage in advance.

In such a method of forming a pattern transfer mask, the design data 1 is converted and compressed to obtain a plurality of types of pattern files 7A, 7B, 7A.
C and 7D, which are transferred to the data preparation device 9, as shown in FIG. 3, in the conventional example shown in FIG. 4 (shown as the conventional example (2) in FIG. 3) as described above. In contrast to an increase in the transfer time and an increase in the conversion time associated with the transfer to the server 8, the transfer time and the conversion time can be shortened in the method of the present embodiment, and thus the photomask preparation The process throughput can be improved.

Further, a plurality of types of pattern files 7A, 7
After transferring B, 7C, and 7D to the data preparation device 9, that is, just before drawing, the file is converted into one file and the mask pattern data A, B, C, and D in the pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D are converted into one file. The mask data 3 of one file is read by the raster drawing device 5 to perform drawing. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the conventional example shown in FIG. (Shown as (1)), the drawing time becomes longer as described above, but in the method of the present example, this can be shortened, and thus the throughput of the photomask forming step can be improved. . Therefore, according to the method of the present embodiment, since the conversion time, the transfer time, and the drawing time can be shortened, the throughput of the photomask forming process can be remarkably improved as compared with the related art.

By the way, in the above example, the drawing job file showing the drawing procedure shown in FIG. 6B, that is, a file composed of a plurality of pattern files after the data conversion and compression processing, is used as shown in FIG. One drawing pattern file as shown, that is, one file of mask data 3 (see FIG. 1) is created. The drawing pattern file is divided into a certain rectangular mesh shape generally called a stripe or a field, depending on the use conditions of the drawing apparatus. Accordingly, the pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D shown in FIG. 1 are similarly divided into rectangular meshes.

The pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D divided into a rectangular mesh in the drawing job file correspond to the pattern files 7A and 7D.
B, 7C, and 7D can be drawn at arbitrary positions. The arrangement distance between the pattern files to be drawn is not limited to an integral multiple of the mesh size for dividing each drawing pattern file. Therefore, in the example shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary to assume the whole image composed of the drawing job file and to re-divide it with the mesh in the output pattern file as shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 10 surrounded by a solid line indicates an input pattern file (pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D), and a broken line indicates a mesh 11 of the input pattern file. Further, a reference numeral 12 surrounded by a solid line indicates an output pattern file serving as one drawing pattern file (mask data 3), and a dashed line indicates a mesh 13 of this output pattern file.

Here, the drawing pattern file (mask data 3) contains the shape of the figure, its position (graphic coordinate position), and the number of repetitions as shown in FIG. , And information represented by the repetition pitch.

However, in the above example, the data preparation device 9 uses the plurality of pattern files 7A, 7B, 7
When making C and 7D into one file, it is sometimes necessary to divide the figure in the middle of repetition by re-dividing each pattern file. In the division of the repetitive figure, the clipping method of the repetition expression can be applied, and the input repetition information can be reduced to the minimum necessary. However, the data shown in FIG. When subdividing, a result as shown in FIG. 9B is obtained. What is 16 information in FIG. 9A is represented by 43 information as shown in FIG. 9B. become. Therefore, the compression efficiency of the output data is reduced by the re-division processing, and the size of the output pattern file (drawing pattern file) is increased.
9A and 9B, one group represented by a broken line represents one repetitive figure.

For example, when the input data having the configuration shown in the following table is processed, as a result of performing the re-division processing on the total data size of 36034 Kb, the data size of the drawing pattern file obtained is 66272 Kb. turn into.

[Table 1]

As described above, the data size of the drawing pattern file is increased by performing the re-division processing. In the present invention, however, the repeatability described in a plurality of pattern files is used. By connecting repetitive information that can be connected to each other, an increase in data size can be prevented by creating one drawing pattern file. Hereinafter, a method of creating semiconductor mask data according to the present invention will be described as an example.

In this example, a plurality of pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C and 7D obtained by compressing a plurality of pattern data in the example shown in FIG. Create a pattern file (mask data 3). That is, one drawing pattern file (mask data 3) to be output to the drawing device 5 is created by repeatedly connecting information for each rectangular area divided by the mesh.

FIG. 10 shows the connection of the repetition information.
As shown in FIG. 10A, the input side divided mesh (FIG. 10)
(A) The graphics P1, P2, P3, and P4 whose repetition is divided at the boundary portion (indicated by a dashed line) are searched for, and these are connected to each other as one repetitive graphics as shown in FIG. . Here, for such a connection process, the target data is sorted by its arrangement coordinate value,
This can be easily performed by sequentially reading and comparing information before and after. When such a connection process is performed and a drawing pattern file (mask data 3) is created, in the example shown in Table 1, the output of 66272 Kb is output to 5352 bits.
It could be reduced to 2 Kb.

However, with such reduction, it cannot be said that a sufficient reduction effect was obtained as compared with 36034 Kb which is a simple addition of the input data size. This is because the division as shown in FIG.
A, 7B, 7C, and 7D. That is, in FIG. 11, the figure P5 is a mesh on the input side (FIG. 1).
(Indicated by a dashed line in FIG. 1), which makes P5 different from the original figure.
The connection cannot be repeated.

Therefore, prior to the connection processing of the repetition information, the graphic connection processing is performed as follows. First, when each pattern in the pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D is divided, for example, as shown in FIG. 12A, the pattern shown by Q, R, S, and T in FIG. 12 (a) and 12 (b) to find pairs of figures indicated by q, r, s, and t, and perform connection processing as shown in FIG.
And r, S and s, and T and t are each made into one figure.

Further, u obtained by connecting Q and q in FIG. 12 (b) and U obtained by connecting R and r are paired as X in FIG. 12 (c). As shown in FIG. 12 (b), V and v are paired and connected as shown by Y in FIG. 12 (c). Here, such connection processing can be easily performed by registering each figure in a hash table that can be searched by its arrangement coordinate value and searching.

After such connection processing is performed, the above-described connection processing of the repetition information is performed, whereby the pattern files 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7C in the example shown in Table 1 above, that is, in the example shown in FIG. In the process of converting 7D into one drawing pattern file (mask data 3), 66
The output size of 272 Kb could be reduced to 45394 Kb. Therefore, if the method for creating semiconductor mask data of the present invention is applied to the example shown in FIG. 1, the writing time by the writing apparatus 5 can be further reduced.

The method of producing semiconductor mask data of the present invention is not limited to the application to the method of forming a pattern transfer mask as shown in FIG. It is also applicable to a converter between different drawing pattern files. JEO, one of the data formats for semiconductor mask drawing equipment
In the L52 format, mesh division is generally performed in a square having a side of about 1 mm. Similarly, in the MEBES format, which is one of the data formats for the drawing apparatus, when the address unit is set to 0.05 μm, the mesh is divided into a rectangle of 1638.4 μm × 51.2 μm. Therefore, such a JEOL
In order to realize a converter for converting from 52 to MEBES, it is necessary to perform a subdivision process due to a difference in mesh between them, but according to the method for creating semiconductor mask data of the present invention, such a converter is also used. be able to.

[0032]

As described above, in the method of forming a pattern transfer mask according to the present invention, the conversion time is shortened by performing the compression process, and the obtained plural types of pattern files are transferred to the preparation device. As a result, the transfer time is shortened as compared with the case of transferring without compression processing, and the pattern file is converted into one file by the preparation device to obtain one file of mask data, which is read by a raster drawing device and drawn. Is performed, the drawing time is shortened as compared with the case where the data is read from a plurality of files. Therefore, both the transfer time and the drawing time are shortened. Throughput can be significantly improved.

In the method of producing semiconductor mask data according to the present invention, repetitive information described in a plurality of pattern files is used to connect connectable repetition information, thereby forming one drawing pattern file. Is created. Therefore, although the output data size always becomes larger than the input data size when the process involving the re-division of the pattern file is performed, according to the present invention, the data size of the obtained drawing pattern file is It can be reduced to near the data size. Therefore, it is possible to increase processing time and save computer resources required for data handling after the subdivision process, which is a problem when the data size becomes large.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining one embodiment of a method for forming a pattern transfer mask of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams for explaining specific processing contents when converting design data into mask data, where FIG. 2A is a flowchart showing a processing flow, and FIG. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a result of an evaluation in a process from data conversion to writing performed between the present invention and a conventional example.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a conventional method of forming a pattern transfer mask.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining another example of a conventional method for forming a pattern transfer mask.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams for explaining a beam scanning method at the time of drawing by the raster drawing apparatus, wherein FIG. 6A is a diagram showing a beam scanning method for one file, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a beam scanning method of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a difference between mesh division of an output pattern file and mesh division of an input pattern file.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a repeated figure.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams for explaining subdivision using an output mesh, where FIG. 9A shows a state before subdivision and FIG. 9B shows a state after subdivision. FIG.

10A and 10B are diagrams for explaining connection of repetitive information, FIG. 10A is a diagram showing a state before repeated connection, and FIG. 10B is a diagram showing a state after repeated connection. It is.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example in which connection cannot be made repeatedly.

12 (a) to 12 (c) are diagrams for explaining the connection of divided figures, FIG. 12 (a) is a diagram showing a state before the connection of the divided figures, and FIG. 12 (b) is a view from the state of FIG. FIG. 7C is a diagram showing a state in which divided figures are connected, and FIG. 7C is a diagram showing a state in which divided figures are connected from the state of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Design data, 3 ... Mask data, 5 ... Raster drawing apparatus, 6 ... Data conversion and compression apparatus, 7A, 7B, 7C,
7D: pattern file, 9: data preparation device, 10 ...
Input pattern file, 12 ... one drawing pattern file, A, B, C, D ... design data pattern, A ',
B ', C', D '... mask data pattern

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A mask for a pattern transfer is read by a raster drawing apparatus, and the raster drawing apparatus performs drawing based on the read mask data to form a pattern transfer mask. A method comprising: converting design data having a plurality of types of design pattern data into data that can be read by a raster-based drawing apparatus; compressing the data; and having mask pattern data corresponding to each of the design pattern data. Forming a seed pattern file; transferring the mask pattern data in the obtained pattern file to a preparation device for preparing the raster drawing device to read the mask pattern data; Combine multiple types of pattern files into a single file Converting the mask pattern data into one file of mask data; and causing the raster drawing device to read the obtained one-file mask data and causing the raster drawing device to perform drawing. A method for forming a pattern transfer mask, characterized in that: 2. When creating one drawing pattern file from a plurality of pattern files obtained by compressing a plurality of pattern data, a repeatability described in the plurality of pattern files is used. A method of creating semiconductor mask data, wherein one pattern file for drawing is created by connecting repetitive information that can be connected to each other. 3. The method for producing semiconductor mask data according to claim 2, wherein the graphic data divided into a plurality of pattern files is connected to create one drawing pattern file.