JPS6314431A - Automatic resetting system of continuous automatic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform reliable unmanned continuous operation by a method wherein, when an error is commited during the continuous operation of a step and repeat type electron beam lithography equipment, etc., resetting or disconnecting process is automatically performed conforming to the resetting procedures per error kind specified in terms of the seriousness of error without waiting for the command of an operator. CONSTITUTION:Data for resetting to errors in picture drawing process are stored and then pictures are drawn within the beam deflection range and after normally finishing the process, error count areas per kind are cleared. All chips are picture-drawn in a wafer by repeating the picture drawing process one after another until the process is finished. If a picture drawing error is committed the per kind error is picked up to renew the error frequency per kind and the total error frequency. Whenever the control frequency of 114 per kind or the limit value of total error frequency is exceeded, the continuous picture drawing process is finished, otherwise the picture drawing unit is renewed conforming to the resetting procedures per kind. Furthermore, when a serious error is commited, the picture drawing process is finished.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an automatic return method in a continuous automatic device,
The present invention relates to an automatic return method suitable for a step-and-repeat type electron beam lithography apparatus, for example, which requires different return processing depending on the severity of an error.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional step-and-repeat type electron beam lithography equipment uses rHL600 Hitachi electron beam lithography equipment instruction manual (E
When an error occurs as described in "B Control Rough Volume 8," the following three processes are performed according to the operator's instructions: ■ Re-execute from the location where the error occurred, ■ Execute from the process following the error, and ■ End the process. One of these could be selected depending on the severity of the error, and in the case of a minor error, processing could be continued.

However, when the equipment is operated unattended, even a minor error causes processing to be interrupted until the operator notices it, which not only reduces the operating rate but also deteriorates the condition of the wafer or mask. There was a problem.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The above-mentioned conventional technology has a problem in that when an error occurs, the system waits for instructions from the operator, and no consideration is given to continuous unmanned operation.

An object of the present invention is to automatically perform recovery and interruption processing according to an error recovery procedure for each error type preset according to the importance of the error, without waiting for instructions from an operator when an error occurs during continuous operation. In addition, if errors occur frequently, by determining that there is a fundamental problem, the system automatically continues processing in the case of minor errors, and suspends processing in other cases. The goal is to realize continuous unmanned operation.

[Means for solving problems]

The above purpose is to set error recovery procedures for each error type on a recording medium, retrieve the error recovery procedure from the recording medium every time an error occurs, and store the number of error occurrences and the total number of error occurrences for the error on the recording medium. Then, the number of error occurrences for the previous error type is cleared only when the recovery process operates normally, and when the number of consecutive errors for the error type exceeds the set value, or the total number of errors exceeds the set value, the process is This is achieved by interrupting the

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail according to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the processing procedure of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a step-and-repeat type electron beam lithography apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 2, numeral 1 is a large-capacity Disc, which contains information on the arrangement of LSi patterns on the wafer, drawing conditions, and LSi
Pattern data etc. are stored. 2 is a CPU, which controls drawing according to the information in 1 above. 3 is a data control system, which determines the amount of beam deflection from the information passed through 1°2. 4 is a stage control system, which determines the stage position 7 from the information passed through 1.2. 5 is an electron gun that generates an electron beam. 6 is a mirror body that deflects the beam. A stage 7 moves the wafer position over a range that cannot be covered by beam deflection. 8 is a univer, and 9 is a chip arrangement state on a wafer.

Here, the information that has passed through 1 and 2 is written as a chip 9 on a wafer 8 by beam deflection 3 and stage movement 4.

Next, the flowchart shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

Immediately after continuous writing starts (lOO), clear the error count area (101)L, move the stage and prepare for writing using beam deflection range data as a unit (
102), and after storing data for recovering from an error during the drawing process (103), drawing of the beam deflection range is executed (104). If it ends normally here (10
5) Clear the error count area for each type (106
), but if no error occurred last time, this process will be invalid. When one drawing unit is completed, processing moves to the next drawing unit (107), and this is repeated until all drawing units are completed (108), and all chips are drawn on the wafer and the process ends (109).

If a drawing error occurs during this time (105).

The error is displayed (110) and the error type is retrieved (111), the error count for that error type is updated (112), and the total error count is updated at the same time (113).

When the control count for each error type is exceeded (114)
Alternatively, if the total number of errors exceeds the limit value, continuous drawing is terminated (109), otherwise, the recovery procedure for each error type is followed. In this example, if the process is to be retried, the drawing unit is not updated, but if the process is to proceed to the next process, the drawing unit is updated. In addition, if there is a serious error, the process moves to termination processing (117), and if the process terminates normally in the next drawing unit.

Since the error count for the previous error type is cleared (106), if error recovery is successful, the counter for each error type will not be accumulated.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically determine the importance of errors for each type of error occurrence and perform continuous processing.

In addition, if even minor errors occur continuously or if the number of errors is large in total, processing can be interrupted as a fundamental error, and this can be used to improve unmanned autonomous driving.
Effective for reliable continuous operation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the processing procedure of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a step-and-repeat type electron beam lithography apparatus. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Large capacity Disc, 2... CPU, 3... Data control system, 4... Stage control system, 5... Electron gun, 6... Mirror body, 7... Stage, 8...Wafer, 9...Chip.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In continuous automatic equipment such as step-and-repeat electron beam lithography equipment, a recording medium that holds information regarding the recovery means assigned to each error type, and the number of error occurrences for each error type and the total number of error occurrences are stored. A recording medium is provided to automatically recover according to the recovery procedure for the error until the number of error occurrences of the error type exceeds the allowable number of errors for the error type or the total number of errors exceeds a certain value. An automatic recovery method in a continuous automatic device, characterized in that automatic recovery is canceled when the number of occurrences of an error is exceeded.