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:
Aug. 12, 2014
Filed:
Dec. 03, 2012
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsin-Chu, TW;
Shih-Ming Chang, Zhubei, TW;
Tzu-Chin Lin, Hsinchu, TW;
Jen-Chieh Lo, New Taipei, TW;
Yu-Po Tang, Taipei, TW;
Tsong-Hua Ou, Taipei, TW;
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsin-Chu, TW;
Abstract
A method of designing an IC design layout having similar patterns filled with a plurality of indistinguishable dummy features, in a way to distinguish all the patterns, and an IC design layout so designed. To distinguish each pattern in the layout, deviations in size and/or position from some predetermined equilibrium values are encoded into a set of selected dummy features in each pattern at the time of creating dummy features during the design stage. By identifying such encoded dummy features and measuring the deviations from image information provided by, for example, a SEM picture of a wafer or photomask, the corresponding pattern can be located in the IC layout. For quicker and easier identification of the encoded dummy features from a given pattern, a set of predetermined anchor dummy features may be used.