Lsi Logic Corporation

Lsi Corporation

Marina M Medvedeva

Stanislav V Aleshin

Eugeni E Egorov

Sergei Rodin

Paul G Filseth

Nadya Strelkova

Jaroslav V Kalinin

Gennady V Belokopytov

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for optimizing fragmentation of integrated circuit boundaries for optical proximity correction (OPC) purposes. The present invention may balance the number of vertices and the 'flexibility' of the boundary and may recover fragmentation according to the process intensity profile along the ideal edge position to obtain the best decision for OPC.

Method and apparatus for optimizing fragmentation of boundaries for optical proximity correction (OPC) purposes

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for making mask edge corrections using a gradient method for high density chip designs. The present invention uses a newly defined cost function.

Gradient method of mask edge correction

A method of measuring the quality of a simulated aerial image includes receiving as input a mask pattern for a chip design, simulating an aerial image of the mask pattern, calculating an error area representative of a deviation between an ideal boundary of the chip design and a boundary of the simulated aerial image, calculating maximum and average end-of-line deviations between the ideal boundary of the chip design and the boundary of the simulated aerial image, and displaying a worst quality area in the simulated aerial image as a function of the error area and the maximum and average end-of-line deviations for visual inspection.

Quality measurement of an aerial image

Local images of photolithographic masks are assigned to classes based on similarity of functions of circuits formed by the images, so that all of the images of a class can be corrected by correcting one of the members. Boundaries of photolithographic masks are corrected for diffusion of light by moving regions based on process light intensity and proximity of close connections. Boundaries are also corrected for shifting of photoactive material in photoresists by calculating the amount of shift based on light intensities at pattern points.

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Moscow, Russia

Marina M Medvedeva