Advanced manufacturing rules check (MRC) for fully automated assessment of complex reticle designs: part II

Straub, Joseph; Aguilar, D.; Buck, Peter; Dawkins, D.; Gladhill, Richard; Nolke, S.; Riddick, John F.

doi:10.1117/12.686134

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Mask Manufacture Rule Check (MRC) defines some rules on geometrical characteristics of mask features. 11,12 The mask data of some features may not be properly resolved by the mask writing tools, leading up to failure on mask manufacturing. Some features of concern in MRC are given in Figure 4, in which…”

Section: Intervention Schemementioning

confidence: 98%

Regularization of inverse photomask synthesis to enhance manufacturability

Jia

Wong²,

Lam

2009

SPIE Proceedings

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Mask manufacturability has been considered as a major issue in the adoption of inverse lithography (IL) in practice. With smaller technology nodes, IL distorts the mask pattern more aggressively. The distorted mask often contains curvilinear contour and irregular shapes, which cast a heavy computation burden on segmentation and data preparation. Total variation (TV) has been used for regularization in previous work, but it is not very effective in regulating the mask shape to be rectangular. In this paper, we apply TV regularization not only on the mask image but also on the mask edges, which forces the curves of edges to be more vertical or horizontal, because they give smaller TV values. Except for rectilinearity, a group of geometrical specifications of the mask pattern set by mask manufacture rule control (MRC) is also important for mask manufacturability. To prevent these characteristics from appearing, we also propose an intervention scheme into the optimization framework.

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Section: Intervention Schemementioning

confidence: 98%

Regularization of inverse photomask synthesis to enhance manufacturability

Jia

Wong²,

Lam

2009

SPIE Proceedings

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“…Modification of defect specification, which means the lower defect criteria is applicable to the layouts assigned as less criticality, reduces mask defect assurance workload. We defined the term of "effective inspection area", that is a summation of areas of different criticality groups considering their relative weights, as a following formula (4). The effective inspection area shows actual defect assurance workload especially in the defect repairing process.…”

Section: Terminologies: Effective Inspection Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mask-DFM realizes the reduction of mask manufacturing workload ( Table 1). The Mask-DFM techniques are adopted during the various steps in the workflow procedure of design and production [3][4][5][6] , but the impact of the efforts in mask manufacturing is hard to recognize.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of mask-DFM system MiLE load estimation of mask manufacturing

et al. 2007

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Load of photomask manufacturing for the most advanced semiconductor devices is increasing due to the complexity of mask layouts caused by highly accurate RET or OPC, tight specification for 2D/3D mask structures, and requirements of quick deliveries. The mask cost becomes a concern of mask users especially in SoC businesses because the number of masks required throughout the wafer process is almost the same for each product regardless of the variety in production volume when a unified platform is applied to the designs. Shares of mask cost within total production cost cannot be ignored especially in small volume SoC products.DFM (design for manufacturing) is inevitable in a mask level as well as in a wafer level to solve the cost problem. "Mask-DFM" is a method to decrease the burden of mask manufacturing and to improve the yield and quality of masks, not only by modification of mask pattern layouts (design) but also all other things including utilization of designer's intents.We have developed our Mask-DFM system called "MiLE", that calculates mask-manufacturing workload through layout analyses combining information of mask configuration, and visualizes the consequence of Mask-DFM efforts. "MiLE (Mask manufacturIng Load Estimation)" calculates a relative index which represents the mask manufacturing workload determined by factors of 1) EB writing, 2) defect inspection/repair, 3) materials and processes and 4) specification. All the factors are computed before tape-outs for mask making in the system by the following methods. To estimate EB writing time, we applied high-throughput simulator and counted the number of "shot", minimum figure unit in EB writing, by using post-OPC layout data.Mask layout that caused troubles and extra load in mask inspection or repair was specified from MRC (mask rule checking) of the same post-OPC data. Additional layout analysis perceives designer's intents that are described in the layout data and these are reflected in the calculation of the "MiLE" index. Finally, chip arrangement on a mask is retrieved from so-called electronic mask spec sheets to construct mask layouts. "MiLE" notifies to designers the index of mask manufacturing workload that is caused by mask layout, while modification and adjustments of design or OPC are iterated to maximize device productivity in early design phases. Therefore, designers can judge and control the mask manufacturability, or mask cost by designs and additional intents useful for mask making. In the production phases, our system releases useful information for mask manufacturing to a mask shop and decreases the mask manufacturing workload. In this paper, we report the outline and functions of MiLE system and the results of mask manufacturing workload calculation using post-OPC layout data.

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“…The OPC technique, which moderates the complexity of the layouts that impacts on the mask EB writing workload during the layout correction, and the MRC (mask rule checking), which extracts the specified mask layouts that include the obstacles for mask production, are the typical examples of the mask-DFM approaches. [3][4] In the latest research, the application of the severity of the layouts for the device performance was reported as the effective DFM method for the mask quality assurances. 5 The increase of manufacturing workload generally increases the TAT (turn around time) and the manufacturing cost.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Verification of mask manufacturing load estimation (MiLE)

et al. 2008

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The design shrinking of semiconductor devices and the pattern complexity generated after OPC (optical proximity correction) have an impact on the two major cost consuming processes in mask manufacturing, EB (electron beam) writing and defect assurance. 1 Mask-DFM (design for manufacturing) is a technique with various steps ranging from the design to the mask manufacturing to produce the mask friendly designs and to reduce the workload in the advanced mask production. We have previously reported on our system, called MiLE (Mask manufacturing Load Estimation), which quantifies the mask manufacturing workload by using the results of mask layout analyses. 2 MiLE illustrates the benefits of mask-DFM efforts as numerical indexes and accelerates the DFM approaches. In this paper, we will show the accuracy of the workload estimation of the advanced devices by the comparison between the indexes and the process times in the actual mask manufacturing. The throughput of MiLE calculation of the production masks of a 65nm device was measured.

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Advanced manufacturing rules check (MRC) for fully automated assessment of complex reticle designs: part II

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Regularization of inverse photomask synthesis to enhance manufacturability

Regularization of inverse photomask synthesis to enhance manufacturability

Development of mask-DFM system MiLE load estimation of mask manufacturing

Verification of mask manufacturing load estimation (MiLE)

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