Compressed Pixel Map Generation for Electron Beam Lithography
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity of semiconductor devices requires high-precision drawing data for finer circuit line widths, leading to increased data volume and inefficient data transfer in multi-beam electron beam lithography systems, particularly when generating radiation amount data for each pixel.
Innovation Solution
A method for generating a compressed pixel map by identifying island-shaped pixel groups with non-zero dose amount information, determining the order of definition, and encoding this information efficiently, reducing data size by omitting zero dose amount pixels and using serpentine patterns for data structure organization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If radiation amount data is generated for each pixel with high precision (e.g., 10 nm size), then drawing precision is improved, but data volume increases and data transfer efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes pixels with zero radiation amount from the pixel map, keeping only pixels with non-zero dose values. This extraction principle directly reduces data volume by eliminating redundant zero-value data while preserving all necessary drawing information for non-zero pixels.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the pixel map data into individual pixel records, each containing coordinate information and radiation amount. This segmentation allows for selective processing and compression by treating each pixel as an independent data element that can be individually optimized or removed based on its radiation value.
2Productivity
If multi-beam drawing is used to improve throughput, then productivity is improved, but data transfer efficiency deteriorates due to increased data volume requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies extraction by removing unnecessary zero-dose pixels from the data set, significantly reducing the total data volume that needs to be transferred to the multi-beam drawing apparatus. This enables efficient data transfer while maintaining the high throughput capabilities of multi-beam systems.
3Loss of information
If pixel map data is stored with all pixels including zero dose amount, then data completeness is improved, but data compression ratio deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information (non-zero pixels with their coordinates and dose values) while discarding redundant zero-dose pixels. This extraction maintains data completeness for all meaningful drawing information while achieving significant compression by eliminating unnecessary data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by treating pixels with different radiation amounts differently: zero-dose pixels are completely removed, while non-zero pixels are retained with their specific coordinate and dose information. This differential treatment optimizes data storage by applying appropriate compression strategies to different data regions.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a generating method of drawing data includes generating a pixel map that includes dose amount information on each of pixels obtained by dividing a drawing area on an object into a mesh, extracting, from the pixel map, an island-shaped pixel map which is a group of multiple pixels in which the dose amount information is not zero, determining an order of definition of the dose amount information on the pixels in the island-shaped pixel map, and generating a compressed pixel map including a size of the pixels, information indicating the order of definition, coordinates of a pixel which is first in the order of definition in the island-shaped pixel map, and the dose amount information on the pixels in the island-shaped pixel map, the dose amount information being continuously defined based on the order of definition.