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:
Feb. 26, 2008
Filed:
Feb. 17, 2004
Minoru Yamagiwa, Takatsuki, JP;
Tadashi Tanimoto, Otsu, JP;
Akio Misaka, Suita, JP;
Reiko Hinogami, Kawabe-gun, JP;
Minoru Yamagiwa, Takatsuki, JP;
Tadashi Tanimoto, Otsu, JP;
Akio Misaka, Suita, JP;
Reiko Hinogami, Kawabe-gun, JP;
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
Established is a mask pattern correcting technique for reducing the load to a mask CAD process and for ensuring the minimum dimension defined in an OPC process. A method comprises the steps of: measuring a line width of a mask pattern; extracting edges where the line width of the mask pattern is smaller than a predetermined dimension; generating a central geometrical object having a predetermined width relative to the center between the edges where the line width is smaller than the predetermined dimension; and replacing the portion of the mask pattern where the line width is smaller than the predetermined dimension with the central geometrical object. As a result, the mask pattern line width is changed into the predetermined with dimension of the central geometrical object. This reduces notably the number of geometrical object calculating steps that had been performed for each value of dimension on the basis of a correction table in the prior art, and thereby shortens the mask CAD processing time.