CRITICAL DIMENSION UNIFORMITY

Organization Name

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Inventor(s)

Chi-Ta Lu of Sanxing Township (TW)

Chi-Ming Tsai of Taipei City (TW)

CRITICAL DIMENSION UNIFORMITY - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18360445 titled 'CRITICAL DIMENSION UNIFORMITY

Simplified Explanation

The patent application describes a method for fabricating a mask with a pattern layout.

The pattern layout is received and then shrunk to form a smaller pattern.
Centerlines are determined for each feature within the smaller pattern.
The centerlines are snapped to a grid that represents the minimum resolution size of a mask fabrication tool.
After snapping the centerlines to the grid, the mask is fabricated with the shrunk pattern.

Original Abstract Submitted

A method includes receiving a pattern layout for a mask, shrinking the pattern layout to form a shrunk pattern, determining centerlines for each of a plurality of features within the shrunk pattern, and snapping the centerline for each of the plurality of features to a grid. The grid represents a minimum resolution size of a mask fabrication tool. The method further includes, after snapping the centerline for each of the plurality of features to the grid, fabricating the mask with the shrunk pattern.