Radiant energy – Means to align or position an object relative to a source or...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-16
2002-11-19
Lee, John R. (Department: 2881)
Radiant energy
Means to align or position an object relative to a source or...
C250S492200, C250S492220, C716S030000, C716S030000, C716S030000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06483120
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a charged particle exposure apparatus and a control method therefor and, more particularly, to a charted particle exposure apparatus having a plurality of control elements for controlling operation of drawing a pattern on a substrate with a charged particle beam and a control method therefor, an information processing apparatus for generating exposure control data to be supplied to the charged particle exposure apparatus and a control method therefor, and a device manufacturing method using a charged particle exposure apparatus controlled by this control method.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Examples of a charged particle exposure apparatus are an electron beam exposure apparatus and an ion beam exposure apparatus. The charged particle exposure apparatus is used for drawing a desired pattern on a substrate (e.g., a wafer or glass plate) for forming, e.g., a semiconductor integrated circuit, a mask or reticle used for manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit, or a display device such as an LCD.
The charged particle exposure apparatus scans a substrate with a charged particle beam while turning on/off a blanker that controls irradiation of the charged particle beam, thereby drawing a desired pattern on a resist on the substrate. Accordingly, the charged particle exposure apparatus requires a very large amount of exposure control data for controlling exposure performed by the charged particle beam.
FIG. 20
is a block diagram showing the schematic arrangement of a conventional charged particle exposure apparatus. For example, a storage
1101
is comprised of a hard disk device, and stores exposure control data for controlling exposure. The exposure control data is compressed and stored in the storage
1101
in order to reduce the data size. In exposure, necessary portions of a series of exposure control data are sequentially read out from the storage
1101
and are temporarily stored in a buffer memory
1102
.
An expansion processor
1103
develops (expands) partial exposure control data temporarily stored in the buffer memory
1102
, and supplies them to a correction processor
1104
. The correction processor
1104
performs correction for decreasing the influence of a proximity effect, or corrects drift of the charged particle beam, and supplies corrected data to drivers
1105
to
1107
.
A main body
1110
of the exposure apparatus has a blanker
1111
for controlling irradiation of the charged particle beam, a deflector
1112
for deflecting the charged particle beam, and a correction coil
1113
for correcting the focal position or aberration, all of which are driven by the drivers
1105
to
1107
, respectively.
As described above, in general, the exposure control data are stored in the storage
1101
in the compressed state in order to decrease the data size. Even compressed, the data amount of the exposure control data is very large.
Therefore, a method of efficiently compressing exposure control data to be supplied to a charged particle exposure apparatus, without increasing the load of the charged particle exposure apparatus which uses the compressed exposure control data by expansion, is sought for.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and has as its object to for example decrease the load of processing of a charged particle exposure apparatus when expanding exposure control data.
It is another object of the present invention to reduce the data size of exposure control data to be supplied to, e.g., a charged particle exposure apparatus.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a charged particle exposure apparatus having a plurality of control elements for controlling operation of drawing a pattern on a substrate with a charged particle beam, comprising a storage for storing exposure control data including concatenated control data generated by concatenating and thereafter compressing at least two control data for respectively controlling at least two of the plurality of control elements within the same period, and a processor for reconstructing at least two control data by expanding the concatenated control data included in the exposure control data stored in the storage, and controlling at least two control elements in accordance with the two control data.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the exposure control data preferably includes a plurality of concatenated control data arranged in an order with which they are used for control.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, at least two control elements are preferably control elements of the same type.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the apparatus preferably further comprises a charged particle source for generating a plurality of charged particle beams, and the plurality of control elements preferably include a plurality of irradiation controllers for separately controlling whether the substrate is to be irradiated with the plurality of charged particle beams.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, each of the irradiation controllers preferably includes a blanker for controlling whether the charged particle beam is to be deflected.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the exposure control data preferably includes a plurality of concatenated control data, and each of the concatenated control data is preferably generated by concatenating and compressing at least two control data for respectively controlling at least two adjacent ones of the irradiation controllers.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the control data for controlling the irradiation controllers are preferably time series data generated by arranging information, indicating whether the charged particle beams are to irradiate, in an order with which they are used for control.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the concatenated control data is preferably generated by concatenating in series and compressing at least two of the control data serving as time series data.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the concatenated control data is preferably generated by concatenating in parallel and compressing at least two of the control data serving as time series data.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the plurality of control elements preferably include an irradiation controller for controlling whether the substrate is to be irradiated with the charged particle beam, a deflector for scanning the substrate with the charged particle beam, and a focus controller for controlling focus, and the concatenated control data is preferably generated by concatenating and compressing at least two of control data for controlling the irradiation controller, control data for controlling the deflector, and control data for controlling the focus controller.
In the charged particle exposure apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, the apparatus preferably further comprises a data generator for generating the exposure control data on the basis of a pattern to be drawn on the substrate.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a charged particle exposure apparatus having a plurality of control elements for controlling operation of drawing a pattern on a substrate with a charged particle beam, the method comprising the steps of reading out, from a storage, exposure control
Muraki Masato
Yui Yoshikiyo
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fernandez Kalimah
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Lee John R.
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