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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 27, 1992
Filed:
Jul. 26, 1991
Joseph B Frei, Hopewell Junction, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A system and method of forming shapes on a semiconductor chip by exposing a radiation sensitive layer by an electron beam lithographic tool. Design shapes are converted into rectangles in a single pass through the shapes by a computer postprocessor. The postprocessor processes the design shapes by converting them to edges and sorting the edges from top to bottom and left to right. Chains of top and side edges are built from the sorted edges until a bottom edge is encountered which triggers a fill. When a fill is triggered, subsequent bottom edges are examined to avoid unnecessary sliver generation during the fill or at future fills. Rectangles are generated to fill as much of the area under the chain as possible while minimizing the number of slivers created or which may be created at future fills. Unfilled portions of the chain are left for later fills and edge processing continues until all edges have been processed and the entire design is filled with rectangles. An optimum fill is produced and slivers are minimized.