Pattern data conversion for lithography system
AssigneeMapper Lithography IP B.V.
InventorsTeunis Van De Peut, Marco Jan-Jaco Weiland
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for exposing a target according to pattern data in a maskless lithography machine generating a plurality of exposure beamlets for exposing the target. The method comprises providing input pattern data in a vector format, rendering and quantizing the input pattern data to generate intermediate pattern data, and re-sampling and re-quantizing the intermediate pattern data to generate output pattern data. The output pattern data is supplied to the lithography machine, and the beamlets generated by the lithography machine are modulated on the basis of the output pattern data.
Claims62
A method for exposing a target according to pattern data in a maskless lithography machine generating a plurality of exposure beamlets for exposing the target, the method comprising:
- providing input pattern data in a vector format;
- rendering and quantizing the input pattern data to generate intermediate pattern data in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values;
- re-sampling and re-quantizing the intermediate pattern data to generate output pattern data;
- supplying the output pattern data to the lithography machine;
- and
- modulating the beamlets generated by the lithography machine on the basis of the output pattern data.
The method of 1, further comprising a pattern scaling adjustment performed on the intermediate pattern data, the pattern scaling comprising a scaling of pattern data for an entire stripe of the pattern data.
A method of operating a lithography machine wherein image data is supplied in vector format to the machine in a first step, the vector format is rendered and quantized to a bitmap data format in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values in a second step, said bitmap data is re-sampled in a third step for performing real-time corrections on said data, the re-sampled data is re-quantized in a fourth step, and subsequently supplied as an output bitmap to imaging hardware of the machine in a fifth step.
A data path for converting input pattern data in a vector format to output pattern data in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values, the data path comprising:
- a first processing unit for rendering and quantizing the input pattern data to generate intermediate pattern data in the form of a spatially mapped array of pixel values;
- a first storage unit for storing the intermediate pattern data;
- and
- a second processing unit for re-sampling and re-quantizing the intermediate pattern data to generate output pattern data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.