Charged particle beam drawing apparatus and drawing data generation method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016284510-A1
Application number	US-201615056300-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 29, 2016
Priority date	Mar 25, 2015
Publication date	Sep 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In one embodiment, a charged particle beam drawing apparatus includes a drawing unit that draws a pattern in a drawing area on a substrate and a control processing circuitry that controls the drawing unit via a process including receiving drawing data with a hierarchical correction map input to the control processing circuitry, the drawing data with the hierarchical map including a plurality of files in which division maps are respectively described in files in units of subframes, each division map including dose information associated with corresponding one of blocks of the drawing area, and the process further including generating shot data by performing a data conversion process on the drawing data, reading a division map corresponding to a block in the area to be drawn from the hierarchical correction map, calculating a dose, and controlling the drawing unit based on the shot data and the calculated dose.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A charged particle beam drawing apparatus comprising:
a drawing unit that draws a pattern in a drawing area on a substrate by using a charged particle beam; and a control processing circuitry that controls the drawing unit via a process including receiving drawing data with a hierarchical correction map input to the control processing circuitry, the drawing data with the hierarchical map including a plurality of files in which division maps are respectively described in files in units of subframes, each division map including dose information associated with corresponding one of blocks of the drawing area, and the process further including generating shot data by performing a data conversion process on the drawing data, reading a division map corresponding to a block in the area to be drawn from the hierarchical correction map, calculating a dose, and controlling the drawing unit based on the shot data and the calculated dose.

2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
in the hierarchical correction map, division map indexes and division map data are defined for respective division maps and described in files in units of subframes, each division map index including information indicating a mesh size and the number of meshes of a division map included in each block, the division map data including dose information associated with each mesh, and each file includes a block pointer indicating a storage location of a division map index of each block in the file.

3 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the division map index includes a definition order flag indicating a definition order of the dose information of each mesh, and the control processing circuitry acquires dose information from the division map data based on the definition order flag.

4 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the division map index includes a compression type identification flag indicating whether the division map data is compressed or not.

5 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the division map index includes a link code for linking to division map data, and wherein link codes included in division map indexes of division maps in different blocks link to identical division map data.

6 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the dose information is subjected in advance to a first correction in terms of a dose taking into account a phenomenon with a small influence radius or a second correction in terms of a dose taking into account both a phenomenon with a large influence radius and the phenomenon with the small influence radius, the division map index includes a correction code indicating which one of the first correction and second correction has been performed on the dose information of division map data, and the control processing circuitry calculates the dose based on the correction code.

7 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the drawing data includes cell layout information provided for each block, the cell layout information indicating a layout location of a reference point of a cell, and the drawing data further includes a pointer indicating a storage location of the division map corresponding to each block.

8 . A method of generating drawing data for a charged particle beam drawing apparatus, comprising:
inputting design data and correction condition parameters, the design data defining a plurality of cells in a chip area, each cell including at least one figure pattern; converting the design data into drawing data in which a shape and a location of each figure pattern are defined; determining dose information for correcting a proximity effect using the design data and the correction condition parameters; dividing a drawing area into a plurality of subframes; dividing each subframe into a plurality of blocks; assigning a division map including the dose information to each block; describing the mesh size and the number of meshes of a division map included in each block, and dose information associated with each mesh in files in units of subframes; and outputting the drawing data with a hierarchical correction map including a hierarchical correction map and the drawing data, the hierarchical correction map including a plurality of files corresponding to a plurality of subframes.

9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein in the describing in the files, a division map index and division map data are defined for each division map and described in a corresponding file together with a block pointer, the division map index including information in terms of a mesh size and the number of meshes of a division map included in each block, the division map data including dose information associated with each mesh, and the block pointer indicating a storage location of the division map index of each block.

10 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein the division map index includes a definition order flag indicating a definition order of each mesh in the division map.

11 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein in a case where the division map data has a data size equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the division map data is compressed, and a compression type identification flag indicating that the division map data is compressed is set in the division map index.

12 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein
the division map index includes a link code for linking to division map data, and wherein link codes included in division map indexes of division maps in different blocks link to identical division map data.

13 . A method of generating drawing data input to a charged particle beam drawing apparatus, the drawing data including dose information for correcting a proximity effect, the method comprising:
inputting drawing data with a correction map, the correction map including dose information associated with a corresponding drawing area; dividing the drawing area into a plurality of subframes; dividing each subframe into a plurality of blocks; assigning division maps obtained by dividing the correction map to the respective blocks, describing the mesh size, the number of meshes, and dose information associated with each mesh in files in units of subframes; and outputting drawing data having the hierarchical correction map, the hierarchical correction map including a plurality of files corresponding to a plurality of subframes.

14 . The method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
inputting design data and correction condition parameters, the design data defining a plurality of cells in a chip area, each cell including at least one figure pattern; converting the design data into drawing data in which a shape and a location of each figure pattern are defined; determining dose information for correcting a proximity effect using the design data and the correction condition parameters, and generating the drawing data with the correction map using a correction map including dose information corresponding to a drawing area and using the drawing data.

15 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein in the describing in the files, division map indexes and division map data are defined for respective division maps and described together with a block pointer in units of subframes, each division map index including information indicating a mesh size and the number of meshes of a division map included in each block, the division map data including dose information associated with each mesh, and the block pointer indicating a storage location of the division map index of each block.

Assignees

• Nuflare Technology Inc

Inventors

• Hara Shigehiro
• Yasui Kenichi
• Yamashita Hiroshi
• Kato Yasuo
• Gomi Saori
• Sakamoto Shinji
• Tamura Takao
• Tsuchiya Hideo
• Nakayamada Noriaki
• Matsumoto Hironobu

Classifications

• H01J2237/31776

  Shaped beam · CPC title

• H01J37/3026 Primary

  Patterning strategy · CPC title

• H01J37/3174

  Particle-beam lithography, e.g. electron beam lithography · CPC title

• H01J2237/31762

  Computer and memory organisation · CPC title

• H01J37/243

  Beam current control or regulation circuits (H01J37/241 takes precedence) · CPC title