The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Feb. 28, 2023

Filed:

Aug. 02, 2021
Applicant:

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsinchu, TW;

Inventors:

Ken-Hsien Hsieh, Taipei, TW;

Ru-Gun Liu, Zhubei, TW;

Wei-Shuo Su, Hsinchu, TW;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G03F 7/00 (2006.01); G03F 7/20 (2006.01); H01L 21/311 (2006.01); G03F 1/36 (2012.01); G03F 1/70 (2012.01); G06F 30/398 (2020.01); G06F 119/18 (2020.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G03F 7/70466 (2013.01); G03F 1/36 (2013.01); G03F 1/70 (2013.01); G06F 30/398 (2020.01); H01L 21/31144 (2013.01); G06F 2119/18 (2020.01);
Abstract

In a method of manufacturing a photo mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process, a mask pattern layout in which a plurality of patterns are arranged is acquired. The plurality of patterns are converted into a graph having nodes and links. It is determined whether the nodes are colorable by N colors without causing adjacent nodes connected by a link to be colored by a same color, where N is an integer equal to or more than 3. When it is determined that the nodes are colorable by N colors, the nodes are colored with the N colors. The plurality of patterns are classified into N groups based on the N colored nodes. The N groups are assigned to N photo masks. N data sets for the N photo masks are output.


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