Intelligent Pattern Signature for Lithography Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
At nanometer scales below 65 nm, relying solely on Design Rules Checking (DRC) is insufficient for ensuring acceptable yields in Integrated Circuit (IC) design, as it does not account for the variability in semiconductor manufacturing processes, leading to the need for costly and time-consuming lithography process simulations.
Innovation Solution
An intelligent pattern signature is generated that retains only essential information about lithography-printable portions of design patterns, allowing multiple equivalent patterns to share a single signature, reducing the number of simulations and database size by representing patterns using mathematical functions and filtering out unprintable details through frequency domain transformations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If lithography simulations are performed for each pattern to ensure manufacturing precision, then manufacturing precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to high cost and time consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-calculates lithography simulation results for representative patterns before actual production. These pre-computed results are stored and reused when verifying new designs, eliminating the need to perform full lithography simulations for every pattern while maintaining manufacturing precision verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates simplified graphical representations (signatures) that copy only the essential lithography-relevant features of patterns. These signatures serve as lightweight proxies for full pattern data, enabling rapid comparison and verification without requiring expensive complete lithography simulations for each pattern.
2Measurement precision
If complete pattern information is stored in database for future matching, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases due to large database size
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential lithography-relevant features from complete pattern information to create compact signatures. By removing redundant geometric details that do not affect lithography outcomes, the database size is dramatically reduced while retaining sufficient information for accurate pattern matching and printability verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms complex geometric pattern data into simplified parameter sets that capture only the critical lithography characteristics. This parameter transformation reduces data dimensionality and storage requirements while preserving the information needed for accurate lithography simulation results comparison.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention is directed to an improved method, system, and computer program product for accessing and analyzing patterns in the integrated circuit design. The method, system or computer program product includes generating an intelligent signature for a pattern. The derived pattern signature is an intelligent pattern identifier because it retains only essential information about a pattern that corresponds to lithography printable portions of the pattern. Accordingly, one pattern signature can represent a group of design patterns that are equivalents from a lithography perspective.