E-beam control data compaction system and method

A method of controlling a particle beam tool to expose a radiation sensitive layer to a plurality of design shapes, said method comprising the steps of:

• decomposing said shapes into a plurality of fill rectangles and FILLSHAPEs;
• sorting said FILLSHAPEs into groups;
• placing a FILLSHAPE defined macro into a macro buffer for at least one said group;
• and
• exposing said radiation sensitive layer by said particle beam tool according to said FILLSHAPE defined macro.

A method of shape decomposition for decomposing a two dimensional shape having at least one angled edge, said method comprising the steps of:

• determining a step size;
• determining a Maximum FILLSHAPE size;
• determining a staircase size, said staircase size being the length of the angled edge divided by the step size;
• determining a FILLSHAPE number, said FILLSHAPE number being the staircase size divided by the Maximum FILLSHAPE size;
• and
• segmenting said shape into at least 1 FILLSHAPE.

A method of controlling a particle beam tool for exposing a radiation sensitive layer to a design shape, said design shape having at least one angled edge, said method comprising the steps of:

• filling said design shape with fill rectangles and at least one FILLSHAPE;
• determining an equivalent rectangle for each said FILLSHAPE;
• determining a proximity correction value for each said equivalent rectangle;
• applying each said proximity correction value to each said FILLSHAPE;
• and
• exposing said radiation sensitive layer by said particle beam tool according to said applied proximity correction value.

A method of generating control data for controlling the exposure of a radiation sensitive layer to a plurality of two dimensional shapes comprised of a plurality of angled shapes, said angled shapes having at least one angled edge, said method comprising the steps of:

• decomposing said angled shapes into a plurality of fill rectangles and a plurality of FILLSHAPEs, said FILLSHAPEs being 3-sided FILLSHAPEs and 4-sides FILLSHAPEs, at least one said side on each said FILLSHAPE lying on an angled shape's angled edge;
• determining a proximity correction exposure value for each said FILLSHAPE by the steps of determining an equivalent rectangle for each said FILLSHAPE, and determining an equivalent proximity correction value for said equivalent rectangle;
• grouping identical said FILLSHAPEs into a plurality of groups, each said group consisting of at least one FILLSHAPE;
• and
• placing a FILLSHAPE defined macro in a macro buffer for each said FILLSHAPE group, said FILLSHAPE defined macro being encoded as control data and retrieved from said macro buffer to expose each said FILLSHAPE in said group.