Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Pilsoo Kang

Sangwook Kim

Sanghun Kim

Seunghune Yang

Jeeeun Jung

Sungyong Moon

Wonchan Lee

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes performing an optical proximity correction (OPC) operation on a layout and forming a photoresist pattern on a substrate using a photomask that is manufactured with the layout corrected by the OPC operation. The OPC operation includes sectioning the layout into a low-level patch and a high-level patch, performing a first OPC operation on the low-level patch, the first OPC operation including generating a first boundary correction pattern of a curvilinear shape on a boundary between the low-level patch and the high-level patch, performing a second OPC operation on the high-level patch, the second OPC operation including a second boundary correction pattern of a curvilinear shape on the boundary, and conforming the first boundary correction pattern and the second boundary correction pattern to each other to generate a conformed boundary correction pattern of a curvilinear shape.

Optical proximity correction method and method of fabricating a semiconductor device using the same

A mask forming method includes providing preliminary mask data including a Manhattan path such as a quadrangle, a bar, a polygon or a combination thereof based on a layout. Mask data including a curvilinear shape is prepared by correcting the preliminary mask data through application of an elliptical function, a B-spline curve, or a combination thereof. A mask pattern is formed on a mask substrate based on the mask data.

Method of forming mask including curvilinear shape and method of forming semiconductor device

The inventive concept provides an optical proximity correction (OPC) method using a multi-OPC model that can reduce a runtime of an entire OPC method by reducing an iteration number of simulations using a complex OPC model, and a method of manufacturing a mask by using the OPC method. The OPC method using the multi-OPC model can generate a re-target pattern to be applied to a simple OPC model, and can perform a simulation by using a complex OPC model on a target pattern after performing a simulation using the simple OPC model on the re-target pattern. Therefore, an iteration number of simulations using the complex OPC model can be reduced and, accordingly, an entire execution time of the OPC method can be reduced.

Growing community of inventors

Hwaseong-si, South Korea

Pilsoo Kang