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:
Nov. 03, 2009
Filed:
May. 26, 2006
Christophe Pierrat, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Alfred Kwok-kit Wong, Brookline, MA (US);
Christophe Pierrat, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Alfred Kwok-Kit Wong, Brookline, MA (US);
Takumi Technology Corp., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The manufacturing of integrated circuits relies on the use of optical proximity correction (OPC) to correct the printing of the features on the wafer. The data is subsequently fractured to accommodate the format of existing mask writer. The complexity of the correction after OPC can create some issues for vector-scan e-beam mask writing tools as very small slivers are created when the data is converted to the mask write tool format. Moreover the number of shapes created after fracturing is quite large and are not related to some important characteristics of the layout like for example critical areas. A new technique is proposed where the order of the OPC and fracturing steps is reversed. The fracturing step is done first in order to guarantee that no slivers are created and that the number of shapes is minimized. The shapes created can also follow the edges of critical zones so that critical and non-critical edges can be differentiated during the subsequent OPC step.