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:
Sep. 04, 2007
Filed:
Mar. 05, 2004
Ebo H. Croffie, Portland, OR (US);
Nicholas K. Eib, San Jose, CA (US);
Mario Garza, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Paul Filseth, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Lav D. Ivanovic, Cupertino, CA (US);
Ebo H. Croffie, Portland, OR (US);
Nicholas K. Eib, San Jose, CA (US);
Mario Garza, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Paul Filseth, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Lav D. Ivanovic, Cupertino, CA (US);
LSI Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system of optimizing the illumination of a mask in a photolithography process. A specific, preferred method includes the steps of: loading minimum design rules of a layout, loading exposure latitude constraints, loading mask error constraints, loading initial illumination conditions, simulating current illumination conditions, obtaining dose-to-print threshold from the minimum design rules (i.e., lines-and-space feature), applying OPC on the layout using the dose-to-print threshold, calculating DOF using the exposure latitude and mask error constraints, changing the illumination conditions in order to attempt to maximize common DOF with the exposure latitude and mask error constraints, and continuing the process until maximum common DOF is obtained.