Claims
- 1. A method for improving the manufacturability of objects to be created on a semiconductor wafer, comprising:
receiving a target layer that defines a number of objects to be lithographically created on a semiconductor wafer, each object having a number of edges and two or more objectives for each edge that can be optimized; creating a mask layout for one or more masks to be used in creating the objects on the wafer, the mask layout having a number of fragments some of which correspond to the edges to be created on the wafer; performing a simulation of the mask layout to predict how the edges will be created on the wafer; determining relationships that predict how movement of the fragments in the mask layout will affect the two or more objectives of a number of edges to be created on the wafer; and selecting an objective for each edge to optimize using a defined tolerance, and using the relationships to determine how one or more fragments should be moved in the mask layout to optimize the selected objective of each edge.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or more objectives for each edge include edge placement error (EPE) and slope.
- 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the relationships are gradient matrices that estimate the change in EPE and slope of edges versus a change in position of a fragment in the mask layout.
- 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the position of the fragments in the mask layout is adjusted until each edge site has a slope greater than a minimum, and an EPE less than a maximum.
- 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the selected objective of an edge is optimized by moving one or more fragments indicated in the gradient matrices as having a significant effect on the selected objective of the edge in question.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulation is performed assuming a defocused imaging for the mask.
- 7. A method of improving the manufacturability of objects in a target layer to be created on a semiconductor wafer, comprising:
receiving a target layer that defines a number of objects to be created on a semiconductor wafer, each object having a number of edges with an objective that can be optimized; creating a mask layout to be used in fabricating the target layer on the wafer, the mask layout defining a number of fragments, some of which correspond to edges to be created on the wafer; performing a simulation of how the edges will be created on the wafer with the mask layout; determining a matrix relationship that specifies how movement of a fragment in the mask layout affects the objective of a number of edges to be created on the wafer; improving the objective of an edge to be created on the wafer by moving one or more fragments in the mask layout that have entries in the matrix relationship indicating that the fragments have a significant effect on the objective of the edge in question.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the objective of the edges are improved by:
analyzing each edge to be created on the wafer; determining a change in position for one or more fragments in the mask layout to improve the objective of the edge in question; re-simulating how the edges will be created with the fragments in the mask layout in a new position; and re-analyzing each edge in an iterative fashion until each edge has a objective within a prescribed tolerance.
- 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the objective is edge placement error (EPE).
- 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the objective is slope.
- 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the objective of the edges are improved by:
analyzing each fragment in the mask layout that creates an edge on a wafer; determining if moving the fragment improves the objective of an edge to be created; moving the fragment to improve the objective of the edge; re-simulating how an edge will be created with the fragment moved; and re-analyzing the fragments in an iterative fashion until each edge to be created on the wafer has a objective within a prescribed tolerance.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the objective is edge placement error (EPE).
- 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the objective is slope.
- 14. A method for improving the manufacturability of an integrated circuit on a wafer, comprising:
receiving a target layer that defines objects in the integrated circuit to be created on a wafer; fragmenting the target layer so that each object to be created is defined as a number of edges, each edge having objective criteria including an edge placement error and a minimum slope; defining a mask layout having a number of fragments some of which correspond to edges to be created on the wafer; calculating matrices that define how the objectives of an edge are affected by changes in the position of the fragments in the mask layout; selecting an objective for each edge to be optimized and using the matrices to determine a position of one or more fragments in the mask layout to improve the objective of the edge; and moving the fragments in the mask layout until the edges in the target layer have required objectives.
- 15. A computer readable media having stored thereon a number of instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1-6.
- 16. A computer readable media having stored thereon a number of instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 7-13.
- 17. A computer readable media having stored thereon a number of instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 14.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] The present application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of the U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/437,874, filed Jan. 2, 2003, titled USING OPC TO OPTIMIZE FOR IMAGE SLOPE AND IMPROVE PROCESS WINDOW, which is herein incorporated by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60437874 |
Jan 2003 |
US |