JPS63262652A - Photomask - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the detection of a prescribed pattern with the min detecting man-hour by providing with an identifying pattern within scribe lines formed between chip patterns. CONSTITUTION:The identifying pattern 5 is formed within the scribe line 3 lying vertically and horizontally for detecting the horizontal scribe lines as shown by numbers 1, 2, 3... and the vertical scribe lines as shown by numbers A, B, C... in the figure, respectively. And, the identifying pattern is not formed within the scribe line 3 at random, but is formed at the right side of the intersection of the horizontal and the vertical scribe lines for detecting the horizontal line, and at the lower side of said intersection for detecting the vertical line. Thus, the pattern 4 for measuring dimension is very simply detected by using the formed identifying pattern 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a photomask. In particular, the present invention relates to a photomask for forming a semiconductor device.

[Conventional technology]

The structure of the conventional photomask is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-16602.
Unlike No. 6, a pattern for identifying scribe lines is not included, and in JP-A No. 6026, even though the pattern was used for alignment, it was not possible to identify the position of the scribe line.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the above-mentioned C2 technology, in order to find the alignment pattern formed within the scribe line, it is necessary to thoroughly inspect the entire scribe line in the wafer, and on average it takes half of the entire scribe line to find it. This method has the problem of requiring a large amount of man-hours.

The present invention is intended to solve these problems, and its purpose is to provide a method by which a predetermined pattern can be found with a minimum number of careful man-hours.

[Means for solving problems]

The photomask of the present invention is characterized in that an identification pattern is provided within a scribe line formed between chip patterns. Furthermore, the identification pattern can identify the position of the scribe line within the photomask.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a photomask provided with a scribe line identification pattern in Example 1 of the present invention.

In the vertical and horizontal scribe lines 3, there are identification patterns 5 for the horizontal scribe lines 1.2.3...
A, I3 for vertical scribe lines.
It was formed as C... In addition, the identification pattern is not formed randomly in the scribe lines 3, but is formed at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal scribe lines as shown in Figure 1, and the pattern for the horizontal scribe line is formed to the right of the intersection, and the pattern for the horizontal scribe line is formed on the right of the intersection, The area was formed below the intersection.

Using the identification pattern formed in this way, it was very easy to find the dimension measurement pattern 4. First, find the intersection of the scribe lines using the measuring microscope. After that, the identification patterns formed at the intersections and differences are found and their contents are read. For example, let's say it was a D of 20. In the dimension measurement pattern 4, the horizontal scribe line identification pattern is at 22, and the vertical scribe line identification pattern is E and F.
If you go along the vertical scribe line with the microscope until you reach the horizontal scribe line marked 22, and then go to the right along the horizontal scribe line, you will see the prescribed pattern for dimension measurement. was easy to find.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of Embodiment 2 of the present invention. This is a plan view after forming a pattern on a positive type photoresist coated on a semiconductor substrate using a step-and-repeat reduction projection exposure apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a stepper) using a Raot mask provided with a scribe line identification pattern 15. be. A pattern 14 for measuring alignment accuracy was formed in a shape corresponding to the semiconductor device pattern of the horizontal scribe line in the photomask.

In this way, finding a predetermined pattern using the identification pattern of each scribe line was very easy as in the first embodiment described above. For example, the photomask shown in Fig. 2 is composed of 9 chips, 3 chips vertically and 3 chips horizontally, and the pattern 14 for measuring alignment accuracy also has 9 chips.
There are individual If we wanted to find the alignment accuracy of the center chip among these, we could easily find it by moving the field of view of the microscope to the right of 2B or to the left of 20, where the vertical and horizontal scribe line identification patterns intersect.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the invention, by providing an identification pattern in the scribe line that can identify the position in the photomask of the scribe line, a desired predetermined pattern such as a dimension measurement pattern, alignment accuracy measurement pattern, etc. This has the effect of making it possible to easily discover patterns with minimal testing effort.

In particular, as in Example 2, when the same pattern exists at the same location on the scribe line, the effect of the identification pattern is great. Also, in the photomask (reticle) for a stepper, When the number of chips increases (the size per chip is small), the number of scribe lines increases, and the effect of the present invention becomes greater.

The effects of the present invention can be obtained not only for the photomask itself but also for the pattern formed using the photomask, and can be obtained by forming an identification pattern. It doesn't depend on the shape. Moreover, this effect becomes more effective by forming the scribe lines at the intersections of the vertical and horizontal scribe lines.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing Embodiment 1 of the photomask of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing Example 2 of the photomask of the present invention. 1...Photomask substrate 2...Chip pattern 3...Scribe line 4...Dimension measurement pattern 5...Identification pattern 11 ... Semiconductor substrate 12 ... Chip pattern 13 ... Scribe line 14 ... Pattern for measuring alignment accuracy 15.
...Identification pattern or more Applicant Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. agent Patent attorney Tsutomu Mogami and 1 other person [phase]

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A photomask comprising patterns for a plurality of chips, characterized in that an identification pattern is provided in a scribe line formed between the chip patterns. (2) The photomask according to claim 1, wherein the identification pattern is one identification pattern for one scribe line. (3) The photomask according to claim 1, wherein the identification pattern is an identification pattern that can identify the position of the scribe line within the photomask.