Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Ke-Ying Su

Hsiao-Shu Chao

Yi-Kan Cheng

Chia-Ming Ho

Hsien-Hsin Sean Lee

Ke-Wei Su

Ze-Ming Wu

Te-Yu Liu

Lester Chang

Keng-Hua Kuo

Wen-Hsing Hsieh

Jon-Hsu Ho

Ching-Shun Yang

Chih-Cheng Chou

Liang-Yi Chen

Wen-Koi Lai

KuoPei Lu

Chung-Hsing Wang

Jui-Feng Kuan

Chien-Wen Chen

Gwan Sin Chang

Austin Chingyu Chiang

Meng-Fan Wu

Yung-Chin Hou

Tsung-Han Wu

Cheng Yuan Hsiao

Chia-Yi Chen

Hsiang-Ho Chang

Po-Jui Lin

Hui-I Wu

Wan-Ting Lo

Niranjan Vepuri

Ru-Gun Liu

Lee-Chung Lu

Dian-Hau Chen

Wen-Hao Chen

Wen-Chun Huang

Huang-Yu Chen

Meng-Kai Hsu

Cheng-Hung Yeh

Gwan-Sin Chang

Ping-Hung Yuh

Kuang-Hung Chang

I-Fan Lin

Wen-Cheng Huang

Adari Rama Bhadra Rao

Kun-Ting Tsai

Ivy Chiu

A method of generating an IC layout diagram includes receiving an IC layout diagram including a gate region and a gate via, the gate via being positioned at a location within an active region and along a width of the gate region extending across the active region, receiving a first gate resistance value of the gate region, retrieving a second gate resistance value from a resistance value reference based on the location and the width, using the first and second resistance values to determine that the IC layout diagram does not comply with a design specification, and based on the non-compliance with the design specification, modifying the IC layout diagram.

Integrated circuit layout generation method

A method of generating an IC layout diagram includes receiving the IC layout diagram including an active region, a gate region extending across the active region from a first active region edge to a second active region edge, and a gate via positioned at a location along the gate region between the first and second edges, configuring a delta resistance network including the first and second edges, a midpoint between the first and second edges, and resistance values based on the location and first and second edges, and performing a simulation based on the delta resistance network.

Integrated circuit layout generation method and system

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a corresponding layout diagram being stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the layout diagram including layout cells, the method including generating the layout diagram including: for a candidate cell amongst the layout cells in the layout diagram, avoiding a discrete calculation of a corresponding parasitic capacitance (PC) description including, within a database which stores predefined cells and corresponding parasitic capacitance (PC) descriptions thereof, searching the database for one amongst the predefined cells (matching predefined cell) that is a substantial match to the candidate cell; and, when a substantial match is found, assigning the PC description of the matching predefined cell to the candidate cell.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device and system for same

A method of generating an IC layout diagram includes receiving a first gate resistance value of a gate region in an IC layout diagram, the first gate resistance value corresponding to a location of a gate via positioned within an active region and along a width of the gate region extending across the active region, determining a second gate resistance value based on the location and the width, using the first and second resistance values to determine that the IC layout diagram does not comply with a design specification, and based on the non-compliance with the design specification, modifying the IC layout diagram.

A method of generating an integrated circuit (IC) layout diagram of an IC device includes receiving the IC layout diagram of the IC device, the IC layout diagram including a gate region having a width across an active region. The width is divided into a plurality of width segments based on a location of a gate via, and a simulation is performed based on the IC layout diagram and including an effective resistance calculated using at least one width segment of the plurality of width segments.

A method is disclosed for storing and reusing the PC description of layout cells. A database stores predefined cells and PC descriptions that were previously calculated by a 3D field solver. Regarding a candidate cell from the layout diagram, the database is searched for a substantial match amongst the predefined cells. If there is a match, then the stored PC description of the matching predefined cell is assigned to the candidate cell in the layout diagram, which avoids having to make a discrete calculation for the PC description. If there is no match, then the 3D field solver is applied to the candidate cell in order to calculate the PC description of the candidate cell. To facilitate reusing the newly calculated PC description, the candidate cell and the newly calculated PC description are stored in the database as a new predefined cell and its corresponding PC description.

A method of generating a netlist of an IC device includes receiving gate region information of the IC device. The gate region information includes a width of the gate region, the width extending at least from a first edge of an active region to a second edge of the active region, a location of a gate via positioned within the active region and along the width, and a first gate resistance value corresponding to the gate region. The method includes determining a second gate resistance value based on the location and the width, and modifying the netlist based on the second gate resistance value.

Fabricating a first semiconductor device cell using a first process based on a first process parameter or material comprises extracting semiconductor device parameters from the first process parameters to obtain extracted semiconductor device parameters of a first semiconductor device cell. The fabrication process includes training an artificial intelligence to obtain a predictive artificial intelligence using training data as input, the training data comprising the extracted semiconductor device cell parameters and the first process parameter or material. A proposed process modification is provided to the predictive artificial intelligence to generate a predicted cell delay by the predictive artificial intelligence. The predicted cell delay is evaluated against a cell delay threshold. When the predicted cell delay satisfies the cell delay threshold, a new semiconductor device cell is fabricated using a modified process incorporating the proposed process modification.

RC tool accuracy time reduction

A method of generating a netlist of an IC device includes extracting dimensions of a gate region of the IC device, the dimensions including a width of the gate region, the width extending at least from a first edge of an active region to a second edge of the active region, and a distance from a first end of the width to a gate via positioned along the width. A first gate resistance value corresponding to the gate region is received, a second gate resistance value is determined based on the distance and the width, and the netlist is updated based on the first and second gate resistance values.

Integrated circuit modeling methods and systems

A method of generating an integrated circuit (IC) layout diagram of an IC device includes receiving a layout diagram of the IC device, the IC layout diagram including a gate region having a width across an active region, and a gate via positioned at a location along the width. The location is used to divide the width into a plurality of width segments, an effective resistance of the gate region is calculated based on the plurality of width segments, and the effective resistance is used to determine whether the IC layout diagram complies with a design specification.

A method performed at least partially by a processor includes performing an air gap insertion process. The air gap insertion process includes sorting a plurality of nets of a layout of an integrated circuit in an order, and inserting, in accordance with the sorted order of the plurality of nets, air gap patterns adjacent to the plurality of nets. The method further includes generating a modified layout of the integrated circuit. The modified layout includes the plurality of nets and the inserted air gap patterns.

Method, device and computer program product for integrated circuit layout generation

A method, of generating a modified layout based on an original layout, includes: determining a first set of width bias values of an i-th set of layout patterns which compensate for subtractive process effects, the original layout having N sets of layout patterns corresponding to N masks; determining a second set of width bias values of the i-th set of layout patterns of the original layout which compensate for additive process effects; generating the modified layout based on the first and second sets of width bias values of the i-th set of layout patterns, the order index i of the i-th mask corresponding to an order of the i-th mask being applied during a fabrication process; and fabricating, based on the modified layout, at least one of a semiconductor mask or at least one component in a layer of an inchoate semiconductor integrated circuit.

Method of generating modified layout and system therefor

A method and a corresponding system for analyzing process variation and parasitic resistance-capacitance (RC) elements in an interconnect structure of an integrated circuit (IC) are provided. First descriptions of parasitic RC elements in an interconnect structure of an IC are generated. The first descriptions describe the parasitic RC elements respectively at a typical process corner and a peripheral process corner. Sensitivity values are generated at the peripheral process corner from the first descriptions. The sensitivity values respectively quantify how sensitive the parasitic RC elements are to process variation. The sensitivity values are combined into a second description of the parasitic RC elements that describes the parasitic RC elements as a function of a process variation parameter. Simulation is performed on the second description by repeatedly simulating the second description with different values for the process variation parameter.

Method for analyzing interconnect process variation

A layout of an integrated circuit design is provided and a plurality of multiple patterning decompositions is determined from the layout. Each decomposition of the plurality of multiple patterning decompositions includes patterns separated into masks. One or more files are generated that include sensitivities of pattern capacitances to changes in spacing between patterns due to mask shifts. Using the sensitivities and changes in spacing, respective worst-case performance values are determined for each decomposition. A mask set is selected based on the worst-case performance values.

Mask design based on sensitivities to changes in pattern spacing

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Taipei, Taiwan

Ke-Ying Su