Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Kazuko Yamamoto

Soichi Inoue

Sachiko Kobayashi

Iwao Higashikawa

Shigehiro Hara

Kiyomi Koyama

Taiga Uno

Yoji Ogawa

Koji Hashimoto

Satoshi Tanaka

Sachiko Miyama

Toshiya Kotani

Hisashi Kaneko

Takamasa Usui

Masahiko Hasunuma

Shoji Mimotogi

Masami Aoki

Hisako Aoyama

A method of forming a pattern for a semiconductor device comprises the steps of forming a photosensitive film on a substrate and radiating the photosensitive film on the substrate with a beam of a predetermined shape consisting of one of a charged particle beam and an electromagnetic beam, thereby forming an exposed region of a desired shape, the latter step including the step of exposing each of unit regions by a single shot of the beam of the predetermined shape for a predetermined period of time, repeating the exposure a plurality of times, and butt-joining the exposed unit regions to thereby form the exposed region of the desired shape, wherein, in the step of forming the exposed region of the desired shape, butting portions of the unit regions are situated in a first area of a layer to be formed other than a second area in the layer in which predetermined characteristics of a function of the semiconductor device are determined by a pattern width of the exposed region in association with another pattern formed in another layer.

Pattern forming method and pattern forming apparatus

A method for processing design pattern data of a semiconductor integrated circuit includes determining whether or not there are lower-level cells whose individual size is equal to or below a threshold, and if there are such lower-level cells whose individual size is equal to or below the threshold, collecting the lower-level cells to define a higher-level cell whose size is greater than the threshold and replacing the lower-level cells with the higher-level cell.

Method and program for processing design pattern of semiconductor integrated circuit

A pattern of exposure mask-use design data having a hierarchical structure is corrected in order to finish with fidelity a transfer pattern to be formed on a wafer, in which if the exposure apparatus has a light source shape that does not have rotation symmetry at any given angle around an optical axis, as the center, of an illumination optics or a projection optics, a cell A rotated in arrangement in input data having a hierarchical structure is replaced with a cell A&prime; not employing rotation and then optical proximity correction is effected.

Pattern correcting method and pattern verifying method

In a method of designing an LSI pattern, before pattern designing, the length B and line width W of a rectangle obtained by dividing a bent design pattern are used as parameters. A line width C at which a desired line width W is obtained for the length B of the rectangle is determined to be a correction value. Each correction value is listed in a table. In designing a pattern, the upper limit Bmax of the length of a line segment is first determined. Of the line segments of the bent design pattern, a shorter one than the upper limit Bmax is extracted. Then, a rectangle including the extracted line segment is extracted. Thereafter, the line width W of the extracted rectangle is corrected to the line width C by reference to the table.

Method of designing an LSI pattern to be formed on a specimen with a bent portion

A correction target segment extracted from the design pattern is divided into lengths suited for correction. If the arrangement of the divided segments is a one-dimensional pattern, a correction value is obtained by conducting a one-dimensional process simulation to an arrangement within a predetermined distance from a divided segment in perpendicular direction. If the arrangement of the divided segments is a two-dimensional pattern, a correction value is obtained by two-dimensionally extracting a pattern included in a rectangular region having a predetermined distance from one point on the divided segment in perpendicular and horizontal directions and by conducting a two-dimensional process simulation to the extracted pattern.

Mask data design method

A method of forming a photomask of a semiconductor device comprising the steps of forming a photosensitive film on a substrate and exposing the photosensitive film on the substrate by radiating with a radiation beam a plurality of butting unit regions defining butting portions between the butting unit regions and controlling said radiating of the butting unit region so that the butting portions of the butting unit regions are formed only in portions corresponding to isolation regions or alternatively, they are not formed in portions corresponding to contact areas.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprises the steps of forming a first transfer pattern corresponding to a mask pattern on a major surface side of a semiconductor substrate through a first mask plate on which the first mask pattern having a straight portion and a bent portion is formed, and forming a second transfer pattern corresponding to a second mask pattern on a major surface side of the semiconductor substrate through a second mask plate on which the second mask pattern having a pattern arranged at a position corresponding to the straight portion is formed.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device

Pattern data that is an object of correction is divided into an area on which correction is made using correction values that have been obtained in advance for patterns and their respective layouts and an area on which correction is made on the basis of correction values calculated by a simulator. For example, simulation-based correction is made on a gate layer in a memory, while rule-based correction is made on a gate layer in the other area than the memory on the basis of rules for active gate width only. After being subjected to the correction, the areas are combined.

Optical proximity correction system

This invention is provided to eliminate the optical proximity effect which will occur because of different rates of dimensional change between before and after etching when a plurality of gate materials are etched in a single device. After a to-be-corrected region is extracted, an n.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer is extracted. Then, the distance is calculated from the n.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer to a pattern adjacent thereto which can be a p.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer, thereby correcting the size of the n.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer with reference to a correction table for the pattern adjacent to the n.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer. After that, a p.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer is extracted. Then, the distance is calculated from the p.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer to a pattern adjacent thereto which can be an n.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer, thereby correcting the size of the p.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer with reference to a correction table for the pattern adjacent to the p.sup.+ -type polysilicon gate layer.

Mask pattern correction method

Pattern forming method

In a Levenson photomask design method of partially forming a plurality of opening patterns for passing incident light in a light-shielding film for shielding the incident light, and arranging, on some patterns, phase shifters, line segment pairs of different patterns which are adjacent to each other within a predetermined distance R are extracted in units of line segments obtained by dividing the patterns. A pattern within a predetermined distance S from the central point of the opposite region of a line segment pair of interest in a direction perpendicular to the line segments is obtained. The obtained pattern is subjected to a process simulation to obtain resolution easiness representing the easiness in resolving the adjacent patterns. On the basis of the resolution easiness obtained for the adjacent pattern pair within the distance R, a phase shifter is arranged in ascending order of resolution easiness to give a phase difference. Resolution suitable for the exposure condition used can be obtained by a simple method. When the shifter arrangement is determined in consideration of the resolution easiness, a high-resolution shifter arrangement can be realized for a Levenson phase shift mask.

Method for designing Levenson photomask

Optical proximity correction method

A method for designing a photomask, used in photolithography using partially coherent incident light, the photomask having a substrate on which a plurality of transparent regions and opaque regions are formed, the transparent regions including a phase shifter for providing the incident light transmitting through the transparent regions with a phase difference, the method comprising the steps of extracting combinations of patterns adjacent to each other within a distance of a threshold value S2 as adjacent pairs from patterns corresponding to the transparent regions, calculating difficulty of correction of the adjacent pairs, sorting the adjacent pairs in an descending order of the difficulty of correction, connecting the patterns in the adjacent pairs to one another, such that a pair of adjacent patterns are not connected to each other and loop cut is performed if a closed loop is formed by connecting the adjacent patterns, and a pair of adjacent patterns are logically connected if a closed loop is not formed by connecting the adjacent patterns, and determining phases of light transmitted through the patterns, so that a phase of one of a pair of patterns is opposite to that of the other, on the basis of an inversion relationship finally obtained by the connecting step.

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Tokyo, Japan

Kazuko Yamamoto