JPS62250636A - Charged-particle beam exposure device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enlarge the areas of sub-chips, and to shorten the exposure time by continuously positioning the first sub-chips of each stripe in the twice deflection direction and exposing the sub-chips when a wafer is exposed and moved successively. CONSTITUTION:The coordinates of the representative point such as a central position of the first sub-chip '1' of a stripe are read. A signal corresponding to the data of the coordinates is transmitted over a first deflecting plate 13 through a first deflection amplifier 17, and beams are deflected to the point such as the center of the sub-chip '1'. When beams are stabilized, the coordinates of the representative point such as the central position of the sub- chip '1' is read again, and beams are deflected to the point such as the center of the sub-chip '1'. When beams are stabilized, a pattern to be exposed to the sub-chip '1' is read, and a signal corresponding to the pattern is transmitted over a second deflecting plate 12 through a second deflection amplifier 16 and the sub-chip is exposed. Accordingly, the travel of a wafer is shortened during the time when positioning in the second beam deflection direction is conducted, thus enlarging the area of the chip to be exposed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Field of Industrial Application" The present invention relates to a charged particle beam exposure apparatus that draws a pattern of a semiconductor integrated circuit while continuously moving a wafer.

"Background of the Invention" FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a charged particle beam exposure apparatus. A charged particle beam from an electron gun 11 of an electron optical lens barrel 10 is deflected by a second deflection plate 12 and a first deflection plate 13, and is irradiated onto a wafer 15 placed on a stage 14. When exposing a semiconductor integrated circuit pattern onto the wafer 15, the stage 14 moves continuously. At this time, a signal of the pattern to be exposed on the wafer 15 is supplied to the second deflection plate 12 through the second amplifier 16, and a signal indicating the exposure position is supplied to the first deflection plate 13 through the first amplifier 17.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the top surface of a wafer 15, on which there are 50 chip areas 18 to which patterns are to be exposed. For example, this chip area 18 is divided into four stripes 19.
Divide into A to 19D. First, while continuously moving the wafer 15 in the direction of the arrow 20, stripes 19A are exposed. Next, the wafer 16 is moved by one stripe in the direction of the arrow 21, and then continuously moved in the opposite direction to the arrow 20 to expose the stripe 19B.

Thereafter, stripes 19C1190 are exposed in the same manner,
Exposure of one unit area 22 is completed. Here, the width of each stripe 19A to 19D is selected to be a width that can be deflected by the first deflection plate 13.

These stripes are divided as shown in FIG. It is assumed that the wafer 15 is continuously moving in the direction of the arrow 20 when exposing the stripe 19A. Conventionally, pattern data for exposing these stripes was constructed as shown in FIG.

This pattern data is stored in, for example, a control means of the charged particle beam exposure apparatus. First, determine the stripe to be exposed from the data stored in the header of the chip. Next, read the coordinates of the representative point of sub-chip "l", for example, the center position. A signal corresponding to the data is sent to the first deflection amplifier 17. is supplied to the first deflection plate 13 through the beam, and deflects the beam to, for example, the center of the subchip "1".When the beam is stabilized at the specified position, this subchip "
1” is read, and a signal corresponding to the pattern is sent to the second deflection plate 1 through the second deflection amplifier 16.
2, and the subchip "1" is exposed. Next, for example, the center position of the subchip "2" is read, and a signal corresponding to the data is supplied to the first deflection plate 13. When the beam is stabilized, the pattern for exposing subchip "2" is read and a signal corresponding to that pattern is transmitted to the second deflection plate 1.
2 and perform exposure. Thereafter, exposure is performed in the same manner up to the subchip "nxm" of the last chip of this stripe 19A, thereby completing the exposure of the stripe 19A.

In the exposure method described above, the operation of deflecting the beam to, for example, the center of the next subchip after completing the exposure of one subchip is stabilized in a relatively short time because the beam is simply deflected to the adjacent subchip. However, when subchip "1" of the first chip is exposed, it is unclear to what position the beam was deflected before. Particularly if the distance from the previous beam deflection position to the subchip ``1'' of the first chip is long, it takes time for the beam to stabilize. During this time, the wafer is moving, so the width of subchip "1" that can be exposed becomes narrower. Furthermore, if the sizes of the subchips to be exposed differ, for example, by reducing the exposure area from subchip "1" to subchip "n" lined up in the first row of the first chip, The exposure pattern data stored in the control means becomes complex. Therefore, the stripe is divided into multiple subchips of the same size as the first subchip "1" that can be exposed in advance. There is a disadvantage that the number of times the alignment of the beam deflection direction is performed through the deflection plate 13 increases and it takes time.To solve this problem, there is a method of using a first deflection amplifier with a small time constant, but in this case the device The disadvantage is that it is expensive.

``Means for Solving the Problems'' The charged particle beam exposure apparatus according to the present invention has the advantage that when exposing a wafer while continuously moving it, the first subchip of each stripe is continuously positioned twice in the deflection direction. After alignment, perform exposure. Therefore, the area that can be exposed by aligning the beam deflection direction once becomes large, that is, the area of the subchip can be increased, and the exposure time can be shortened. Furthermore, since it is not necessary to use a first deflection amplifier that responds at high speed, the structure can be constructed at low cost.

Embodiment FIG. 1 shows pattern data of a chip used in a charged particle beam exposure apparatus according to the present invention.

This data is stored, for example, in the control means of the charged particle beam exposure apparatus. In this invention, before the pattern data of the first subchip "1" of each stripe, data for only positioning the representative point of the subchip "1" in the deflection direction of the beam is added.

After aligning the beam deflection direction with respect to this sub-chip "1" twice, the pattern of this sub-chip "1" is exposed.

First, read the contents of the chip header and select the stripe to be exposed. Next, read the coordinates, for example, the center position, of the representative point of the first subchip "1" of the stripe. The beam is supplied to the first deflection plate 13 through the deflection amplifier 17, and the beam is sent to the subchip "1".
For example, deflect it to the center of ゛. When the beam is stable,
Again read the coordinates of the representative point of sub-chip 1", for example the center position, and deflect the beam to, for example, the center of sub-chip "1". In this case, the direction of beam deflection is changed by the distance that the wafer moved during the initial alignment. Since the beam only needs to be moved, it becomes stable in a relatively short time. When the beam is stabilized, the pattern to be exposed on this subchip "1" is read and a signal corresponding to that pattern is sent to the second deflection amplifier 16.
is supplied to the second deflection plate 12 for exposure. Next, the coordinates of the representative point of subchip "2", for example, the center position, are read. A signal corresponding to the data is sent to the first deflection amplifier 17.
is supplied to the first deflection plate 13 through the beam, and the beam is deflected to, for example, the center of subchip "2". When the beam is stabilized, the pattern to be exposed on this subtiff 123 is read and a signal corresponding to the pattern is sent to the second deflection amplifier 16.
is supplied to the second deflection plate 13 for exposure. below,
Similarly, exposure is performed up to sub-chip "nXm" of the last chip of this stripe, thereby completing the exposure of this stripe.

"Effects of the Invention" As explained above, the charged particle beam exposure apparatus according to the present invention continuously aligns the beam deflection direction with respect to the first subchip of each stripe twice, and then
It is configured to be exposed to light. Therefore, the distance that the wafer moves during the second alignment in the beam deflection direction is shortened, and the area of the subchip to be exposed can be increased. Therefore, the number of times of alignment in the beam deflection direction is reduced, and the exposure time for the entire wafer can be shortened. At this time, it is not necessary to align the first deflection direction of the beam to the first subchip of the stripe at high speed. Also, except for the first deflection direction alignment to the first subchip, the deflection direction alignment is to the same subchip or mutually adjacent subchips, so use one with a fast response speed as the first deflection amplifier. There's no need. Therefore, it can be constructed at low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows pattern data used in the charged particle beam exposure apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the charged particle beam exposure apparatus, FIG. 3 is a top view of a wafer, and FIG. 4 shows the pattern data of the stripes shown in FIG. A detailed view of FIG. 5 shows pattern data used in a conventional charged particle beam exposure apparatus. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) a first deflection means for dividing a chip area of a wafer into a plurality of stripes having deflectable widths and deflecting a charged particle beam onto one subchip of the stripes; In an apparatus that exposes a wafer while continuously moving it along the stripe using a two-stage deflection method including a second deflection means for exposing a charged particle beam, the first subchip of the stripe is exposed to charged particle beams by the first deflection means. A charged particle beam exposure apparatus characterized in that exposure is performed after aligning the beam deflection direction twice consecutively.