Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method utilizing a multiple dictionary compression method for FPD

• US 7,826,672 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2009
• Issued: 11/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ASML Netherlands BV (ASML Holding NV)
• Original Assignee: ASML Netherlands BV (ASML Holding NV)
• Inventors: Van Engelen, Remco Johannes, Kessels, Lambertus Gerardus Maria, Tinnemans, Patricius Aloysius Jacobus
• Primary Examiner(s): Seth; Manav
• Application Number:
  US12/554,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20090324111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• Field of Search: 382143-149, 382232-233, 382/243, 382/245, 382/251, 382/276, 341 50-107, 358/3.06, 358/3.13, 35842601-42616
• US Class Current: 382/232
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70291 Addressable masks, e.g. spatial light modulators [SLMs], digital micro-mirror devices [DMDs] or liquid crystal display [LCD] patterning devices
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70508 Data handling in all parts of the microlithographic apparatus, e.g. handling pattern data for addressable masks or data transfer to or from different components within the exposure apparatus

Abstract

A system is provided that includes a device having an emissive portion, a memory, and a dictionary decompressor. The device having an emissive portion is configured to produce a patterned beam. The memory is configured to store a compressed representation of a requested dose pattern, comprising two groups of repeating pattern features, to be formed on a surface by the patterned beam. The dictionary decompressor at least partially decompresses the compressed representation. The dictionary decompressor comprises a first dictionary memory configured to store pattern data corresponding to a first group of the two groups of repeating pattern features and a second dictionary memory configured to store pattern data corresponding to a second group of the two groups of repeating pattern features. The repeating pattern features in the first group have one or more differing characteristics than the repeating pattern features in the second group. Related methods are also provided.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a device having an emissive portion configured to produce a patterned beam;

a memory configured to store a compressed representation of a requested dose pattern to be formed on a surface by the patterned beam; and

a dictionary decompressor configured to at least partially decompress the compressed representation, and comprising

a first dictionary memory, and

a second dictionary memory,

wherein the requested dose pattern comprises two groups of repeating pattern features; and

wherein the dictionary decompressor is configured such that;

the first dictionary memory is configured to store pattern data corresponding to a first of the groups, and

the second dictionary memory is configured to store pattern data corresponding to a second of the groups, wherein the repeating pattern features in the first group have one or more differing characteristics than the repeating pattern features in the second group.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first dictionary memory is an external dictionary memory.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the dictionary decompressor further comprises:

a first dictionary decoder configured to at least partially decompress at least a part of the compressed representation by extracting, from the first dictionary memory, portions of pattern data corresponding to references to the first dictionary memory contained in the compressed representation; and

a second dictionary decoder configured to at least partially decompress at least a part of the compressed representation by extracting, from the second dictionary memory, portions of pattern data corresponding to references to the second dictionary memory contained in the compressed representation.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the second dictionary memory is an internal memory of the second dictionary decoder.

5. The system of claim 3, further comprising:

a controllable link configured to forward at least a portion of the data decompressed by the second dictionary decoder, which correspond to features that are to be extracted by the second dictionary decoder later in the decoding process, to the second dictionary memory.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the controllable link is configured to select parts of the decompressed data to forward to the second dictionary memory on the basis of markers in the data input to the second dictionary decoder for decompression, the markers indicating which sequences of data will be extracted by the second dictionary decoder later in the decoding process.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein:

the first and second dictionary decoders comprise at least one Field Programmable Gate Array;

the second dictionary memory comprises memory that is integral with the at least one Field Programmable Gate Array; and

the first dictionary memory comprises memory that is formed separately from the at least one Field Programmable Gate Array and connected via a communication interface.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein content of at least one of the dictionary memories changes according to a region of the requested pattern being processed by the dictionary decompressor.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the dictionary memories is configured to be progressively updated by storing subsequent portions of output from at least one of the dictionary decoders.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein:

output from the first dictionary decoder forms an input for the second dictionary decoder; and

the second dictionary memory is progressively updated by storing subsequent portions of the output from the second dictionary decoder.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one of the dictionary memories is configured to be progressively updated by importing data from an external memory device.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein content of at least one of the dictionary memories includes data relating to a portion of the requested pattern, the portion corresponding to a region of the requested pattern that has been most recently processed.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the portion of the requested pattern is delimited by a window of a substantially predetermined size, which is smaller than the requested dose pattern, and

the window is moved during decompression so as to contain only the region of the pattern most recently processed.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the dictionary decompressor is configured to output partially compressed data as run-length encoded data, Huffman encoded data, delta encoded data or dictionary-based encoded data; and

the system further comprises a run-length decoder, a Huffman decoder, a delta decoder or a dictionary-based decoder, each arranged at least partially to decode the partially compressed data.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the first dictionary memory comprises Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the second dictionary memory comprises Static Random Access Memory.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein a radiation dose in the dose pattern above a dose threshold causes an area of a substrate exposed to the radiation dose to develop a layer or resist, such that the area of the substrate exposed to the radiation dose is protected from etching by the resist.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein a radiation dose in the dose pattern below a dose threshold causes an area of a resist exposed to the radiation dose to be removed.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the differing characteristics include one or more of size and repeat frequency.

20. A method, comprising:

generating a patterned beam;

storing a compressed representation of a requested dose pattern to be formed on a surface by the patterned beam, wherein the requested dose pattern comprises two groups of repeating pattern features; and

reading out and at least partially decompressing at least part of the compressed representation by extracting, from a dictionary memory including an external dictionary memory and an internal dictionary memory, portions of pattern data corresponding to references to the dictionary memory contained in the compressed representation,

wherein the external dictionary memory stores pattern data corresponding to a first of the groups,

wherein the internal dictionary memory stores pattern data corresponding to a second of the groups, and

wherein the repeating pattern features in the first group have one or more differing characteristics than the repeating pattern features in the second group.

21. A flat panel display manufactured according to the method of claim 20.

22. An integrated circuit device manufactured according to the method of claim 20.

23. A method of compressing a stream of data representing a requested dose pattern for a lithographic apparatus, comprising:

analyzing the stream of data to identify sequences of data that occur more than once;

selecting a group from the identified repeating sequences of data to encode for later decompression by a dictionary decoder; and

forming at least a portion of a compressed representation of the data stream by replacing at least one of the repeating sequences in the group by a reference to a location in a dictionary memory from which an uncompressed version of the repeating sequence will be accessible during decompression by the dictionary decoder.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

selecting a first group from the identified repeating sequences of data to encode for later decompression by a first dictionary decoder;

selecting a second group from the identified repeating sequences of data to encode for later decompression by a second dictionary decoder;

forming at least a portion of a compressed representation of the data stream by replacing at least one of the repeating sequences in the first group by a reference to a location in an external dictionary memory from which an uncompressed version of the repeating sequence will be accessible during decompression by the first dictionary decoder, wherein the external dictionary memory is external to the first dictionary decoder; and

forming at least a portion of the compressed representation of the data stream by replacing at least one of the repeating sequences in the second group by a reference to a location in an internal dictionary memory from which an uncompressed version of the repeating sequence will be accessible during decompression by the second dictionary decoder, wherein the internal dictionary memory is internal to the second dictionary decoder.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein:

the first and second dictionary decoders are implemented by means of at least one Field Programmable Gate Array;

the internal dictionary memory is implemented in memory that is integral with the at least one Field Programmable Gate Array; and

the external dictionary memory is implemented in memory that is formed separately from the at least one Field Programmable Gate Array and connected via a communication interface.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the stream of data comprises a representation of the requested dose pattern encoded according to at least one of the following methods:

run-length encoding, Huffman encoding and delta encoding.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein

the first group of repeating sequences is selected so that, for each instance of a repeating sequence in the first group, the sum of the number of bits making up the uncompressed version of the repeating sequence and the number of bits occurring between the instance and a preceding instance of the same repeating sequence in the stream of data is higher than a predetermined reference value;

and

the second group of repeating sequences is selected so that, for each instance of a repeating sequence in the second group, the sum of the number of bits making up the uncompressed version of the repeating sequence and the number of bits occurring between the instance and a preceding instance of the same repeating sequence in the stream of data is equal to or lower than the predetermined threshold value.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the predetermined threshold value is determined according to a capacity of the internal dictionary memory.

29. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

generating markers in the sequences of data in the compressed representation to indicate whether or not they will be accessed from the internal dictionary memory by the second dictionary decoder during decoding.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

preprocessing the stream of data to perform an initial compression;

analyzing the preprocessed stream of data in order to identify sequences of data that occur more than once;

calculating for each instance of such a repeating sequence of data, how much intervening data occurs in the preprocessed stream of data between the instance and a previous instance;

carrying out a local dictionary encoding process comprising, for each repeating sequence of data for which the sum of the size of the intervening data and the size of the sequence of data does not exceed a predetermined threshold value, replacing the sequence of data with a reference to a location in an internal memory of a local dictionary decoder at which the previous instance may be found during decoding of the stream of data by the local dictionary decoder; and

forwarding the output of the local dictionary encoding process to a global dictionary encoding process comprising replacing at least a portion of the remaining repeating sequences with references to a location in an external memory to be used by a global dictionary decoder at which a representation of the repeating sequence may be found during decoding of the stream of data by the global dictionary decoder.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the predetermined threshold value is determined according to a capacity of the internal memory.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the preprocessing comprises encoding using at least one of the following methods:

run-length encoding, Huffman encoding, delta encoding, and dictionary-based encoding.

33. The method of claim 23, comprising:

preprocessing the stream of data to perform an initial compression; and

carrying out a local dictionary encoding process to provide a local dictionary encoded data stream suitable for decoding by a local dictionary decoder, wherein;

the local dictionary decoder is configured to make accesses to an internal local dictionary memory,

an output from the local dictionary decoder provides the input for the local dictionary memory, which stores only a most recent portion of the output, and

the local dictionary encoding process comprises;

analyzing the preprocessed data to identify sequences of data that occur more than once, and

calculating for each instance of such a repeating sequence whether a previous instance of the same sequence will be entirely stored in the local dictionary memory at the point in time when the later instance is encountered during decoding and, if so, replacing each the instance with a reference to a location in the local dictionary memory at which the previous instance will be available during decoding, and

forwarding the local dictionary encoded stream of data as input to a global dictionary encoding process, the global dictionary encoding process providing a global dictionary encoded data stream suitable for decoding by a global dictionary decoder, wherein;

the global dictionary decoder is configured to make accesses to an external global dictionary memory, and

the global dictionary decoding process comprises;

 

analyzing the local dictionary encoded data to identify sequences of data that occur more than once, and

 

replacing at least a subset of the repeating sequences with references to locations in the global dictionary memory at which representations of the sequences will be available during decoding.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the preprocessing comprises encoding using at least one of the following methods:

run-length encoding, Huffman encoding, delta encoding and dictionary-based encoding.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the local dictionary memory is configured to store a portion of the output from the local dictionary decoder on a first-in-first-out basis.