18814439. CONCURRENT MASK OPTIMIZATION FOR MULTIPLE LAYERS (D2S, Inc.)
CONCURRENT MASK OPTIMIZATION FOR MULTIPLE LAYERS
Organization Name
Inventor(s)
Donald Oriordan of Sunnyvale CA (US)
Akira Fujimura of Saratoga CA (US)
CONCURRENT MASK OPTIMIZATION FOR MULTIPLE LAYERS
This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18814439 titled 'CONCURRENT MASK OPTIMIZATION FOR MULTIPLE LAYERS
Original Abstract Submitted
Some embodiments provide a method for modifying a mask layout for producing masks used to manufacture an IC. The method identifies a first set of mask images corresponding to a first layer and a second set of mask images corresponding to a second layer. The method formulates a problem that expresses correlation between desired shapes of IC components and predicted as-manufactured shapes of the IC components. The IC components include components on the first layer and vias on the second layer, each via connecting a first-layer component to a component on another layer. The method solves the problem by iteratively exploring modifications to both the first and second sets of mask images to identify modified sets of mask images that result in predicted as-manufactured shapes for the components on the first layer and the vias on the second layer that sufficiently correlate to the desired shapes of the IC components.