公开(公告)号：US08372565B2

公开(公告)日：2013-02-12

申请号：US12872312

申请日：2010-08-31

申请人： Kehan Tian ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  David O. Melville ,  Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Saeed Bagheri ,  Kafai Lai

发明人： Kehan Tian ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  David O. Melville ,  Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Saeed Bagheri ,  Kafai Lai

IPC分类号： G03F9/00

CPC分类号： G03F1/70 ,  G03F7/70433

摘要： A method for illuminating a mask with a source to project a desired image pattern through a lithographic system onto a photoactive material including: defining a representation of the mask; obtaining a fractional resist shot noise (FRSN) parameter; determining a first relationship between a first set of optical intensity values and an edge roughness metric based on the FRSN parameter; determining a second relationship between a second set of optical intensity values and a lithographic performance metric; imposing a set of metric constraints based on one of the first and second relationships; setting up an objective function of optimization based on the remaining of the two relationships; determining optimum constrained values of the representation of the mask based on the set of metric constraints and the objective function; and outputting these values.

摘要翻译： 一种用源照射掩模的方法，用于通过光刻系统将期望的图像图案投影到光活性材料上，包括：限定掩模的表示; 获得分数抗蚀散射噪声（FRSN）参数; 基于所述FRSN参数确定第一组光强度值与边缘粗糙度度量之间的第一关系; 确定第二组光强度值和光刻性能度量之间的第二关系; 基于所述第一和第二关系之一施加一组度量约束; 基于剩余的两个关系建立优化的目标函数; 基于所述度量约束和所述目标函数的集合来确定所述掩码的表示的最佳约束值; 并输出这些值。

公开(公告)号：US20120210281A1

公开(公告)日：2012-08-16

申请号：US13453262

申请日：2012-04-23

申请人： YING LIU ,  David Osmond Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

发明人： YING LIU ,  David Osmond Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

IPC分类号： G06F17/50

CPC分类号： G03F1/68 ,  G03F1/36

摘要： A method, system, and computer usable program product for fracturing a continuous mask usable in photolithography are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A first origin point is selected from a set of points on an edge in the continuous mask. A first end point is identified on the edge such that a separation metric between the first origin point and the first end point is at least equal to a threshold value. Several alternatives are determined for fracturing using the first origin point and the first end point. A cost associated with each of the several alternatives is computed and one of the alternatives is selected as a preferred fracturing. Several pairs of origin points and end points are formed from the set of points. Each pair has a cost of a preferred fracturing between the pair. The continuous mask is fractured using a subset of the several pairs.

公开(公告)号：US20120052418A1

公开(公告)日：2012-03-01

申请号：US12872312

申请日：2010-08-31

申请人： Kehan Tian ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  David O. Melville ,  Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Saeed Bagheri ,  Kafai Lai

发明人： Kehan Tian ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  David O. Melville ,  Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Saeed Bagheri ,  Kafai Lai

IPC分类号： G03F1/00 ,  G06F17/50 ,  G03F7/20

CPC分类号： G03F1/70 ,  G03F7/70433

摘要： A method for illuminating a mask with a source to project a desired image pattern through a lithographic system onto a photoactive material including: defining a representation of the mask; obtaining a fractional resist shot noise (FRSN) parameter; determining a first relationship between a first set of optical intensity values and an edge roughness metric based on the FRSN parameter; determining a second relationship between a second set of optical intensity values and a lithographic performance metric; imposing a set of metric constraints based on one of the first and second relationships; setting up an objective function of optimization based on the remaining of the two relationships; determining optimum constrained values of the representation of the mask based on the set of metric constraints and the objective function; and outputting these values.

摘要翻译： 一种用源照射掩模的方法，用于通过光刻系统将期望的图像图案投影到光活性材料上，包括：限定掩模的表示; 获得分数抗蚀散射噪声（FRSN）参数; 基于所述FRSN参数确定第一组光强度值与边缘粗糙度度量之间的第一关系; 确定第二组光强度值和光刻性能度量之间的第二关系; 基于所述第一和第二关系之一施加一组度量约束; 基于剩余的两个关系建立优化的目标函数; 基于所述度量约束和所述目标函数的集合来确定所述掩码的表示的最佳约束值; 并输出这些值。

公开(公告)号：US20120017194A1

公开(公告)日：2012-01-19

申请号：US12835891

申请日：2010-07-14

申请人： Saeed Bagheri ,  David L. DeMaris ,  Maria Gabrani ,  David Osmond Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

发明人： Saeed Bagheri ,  David L. DeMaris ,  Maria Gabrani ,  David Osmond Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

IPC分类号： G06F9/455 ,  G06F17/50

CPC分类号： G03F1/70 ,  G06F17/5081

摘要： The present invention provides a lithographic difficulty metric that is a function of an energy ratio factor that includes a ratio of hard-to-print energy to easy-to-print energy of the diffraction orders along an angular coordinate θi spatial frequency space, an energy entropy factor comprising energy entropy of said diffraction orders along said angular coordinate θi, a phase entropy factor comprising phase entropy of said diffraction orders along said angular coordinate θi, and a total energy entropy factor comprising total energy entropy of said diffraction orders. The hard-to-print energy includes energy of the diffraction orders at values of the normalized radial coordinates r of spatial frequency space in a neighborhood of r=0 and in a neighborhood of r=1, and the easy-to-print energy includes energy of the diffraction orders located at intermediate values of normalized radial coordinates r between the neighborhood of r=0 and the neighborhood of r=1. The value of the lithographic difficulty metric may be used to identify patterns in a design layout that are binding patterns in an optimization computation. The lithographic difficulty metric may be used to design integrated circuits that have good, relatively easy-to-print characteristics.

摘要翻译： 本发明提供了一种光刻难度度量，其是能量比因子的函数，能量比因子包括沿着角坐标系的衍射级的难以打印能量与易于打印能量的比率; i空间频率空间， 包括沿着所述角坐标和所述衍射级的能量熵的能量熵因子; i，包括所述衍射级沿着所述角坐标和所述角度的所述衍射级的相位熵的相位熵因子; i，以及包括所述总体能量熵的总能量熵因子 衍射指令。 难以打印的能量包括在r = 0和r = 1附近的空间频率空间的归一化径向坐标r的值的衍射级的能量，并且易于打印的能量包括 位于r = 0的邻域和r = 1附近的归一化的径向坐标r的中间值处的衍射级的能量。 光刻难度度量的值可用于识别在优化计算中的结合模式的设计布局中的图案。 光刻难度度可用于设计具有良好的，相对易于打印的特性的集成电路。

公开(公告)号：US20120008134A1

公开(公告)日：2012-01-12

申请号：US12834379

申请日：2010-07-12

申请人： Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Saeed Bagheri ,  Kafai Lai ,  David O. Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

发明人： Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Saeed Bagheri ,  Kafai Lai ,  David O. Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

IPC分类号： G01N21/00

CPC分类号： G03F1/36 ,  G03F7/70116 ,  G03F7/70125 ,  G03F7/70525

摘要： Programmable illuminators in exposure tools are employed to increase the degree of freedom in tool matching. A tool matching methodology is provided that utilizes the fine adjustment of the individual source pixel intensity based on a linear programming (LP) problem subjected to user-specific constraints to minimize the difference of the lithographic wafer data between two tools. The lithographic data can be critical dimension differences from multiple targets and multiple process conditions. This LP problem can be modified to include a binary variable for matching sources using multi-scan exposure. The method can be applied to scenarios that the reference tool is a physical tool or a virtual ideal tool. In addition, this method can match different lithography systems, each including a tool and a mask.

摘要翻译： 使用曝光工具中的可编程照明器来增加刀具匹配的自由度。 提供了一种工具匹配方法，其利用基于用户特定约束的线性规划（LP）问题对各个源像素强度的精细调整，以最小化两种工具之间的平版印刷晶片数据的差异。 光刻数据可以是来自多个目标和多个工艺条件的关键尺寸差异。 该LP问题可以修改为包括使用多次扫描曝光来匹配源的二进制变量。 该方法可以应用于参考工具是物理工具或虚拟理想工具的场景。 此外，该方法可以匹配不同的光刻系统，每个包括工具和掩模。

公开(公告)号：US20100283982A1

公开(公告)日：2010-11-11

申请号：US12463742

申请日：2009-05-11

申请人： Saeed Bagheri ,  David O.S. Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

发明人： Saeed Bagheri ,  David O.S. Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

IPC分类号： G03B27/54

CPC分类号： G03B27/54 ,  G03F1/34

摘要： A structure and a method for an equi-brightness optimization. The method may include projecting a plurality of bright patterns having a plurality of bright points and a plurality of dark patterns having a plurality of dark points on a substrate, generating a plurality of joint eigenvectors of the plurality of bright points and a plurality of dark points, selecting a predetermined number of joint eigenvectors to project the plurality of bright patterns, generating a plurality of natural sampling points from the plurality of bright points, wherein the plurality of natural sampling points has a substantially equal intensity, and obtaining a representation of an aperture from the plurality of natural sampling points, wherein an image of the representation of the aperture has a substantially uniform intensity.

摘要翻译： 用于等亮度优化的结构和方法。 该方法可以包括在衬底上投影具有多个亮点的多个亮图案和具有多个暗点的多个暗图案，产生多个亮点的多个联合特征向量和多个暗点 选择预定数量的联合特征向量以投影所述多个亮图案，从所述多个亮点生成多个自然采样点，其中所述多个自然采样点具有基本相等的强度，并且获得孔径的表示 从所述多个天然采样点开始，其中所述孔的表示的图像具有基本均匀的强度。

公开(公告)号：US07761839B2

公开(公告)日：2010-07-20

申请号：US11874274

申请日：2007-10-18

申请人： Gregg M. Gallatin ,  Emanuel Gofman ,  Kafai Lai ,  Mark A. Lavin ,  Maharaj Mukherjee ,  Dov Ramm ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Shlomo Shlafman

发明人： Gregg M. Gallatin ,  Emanuel Gofman ,  Kafai Lai ,  Mark A. Lavin ,  Maharaj Mukherjee ,  Dov Ramm ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Shlomo Shlafman

IPC分类号： G06F17/50

CPC分类号： G03F1/36

摘要： Methods, and a program storage device for executing such methods, for performing model-based optical proximity correction by providing a mask matrix having a region of interest (ROI) and locating a plurality of points of interest within the mask matrix. A first polygon having a number of vertices representative of the located points of interest is computed, followed by determining a spatial relation between its vertices and the ROI. The vertices of the first polygon are then pinned to boundaries of and within the ROI such that a second polygon is formed on the ROI. The process is repeated for all vertices of the first polygon such that the second polygon is collapsed onto the ROI. This collapsed second polygon is then used to correct for optical proximity.

摘要翻译： 方法和用于执行这种方法的程序存储装置，用于通过提供具有感兴趣区域（ROI）的掩模矩阵并且在掩模矩阵内定位多个感兴趣点来执行基于模型的光学邻近校正。 计算具有代表所述定位的兴趣点的顶点数的第一多边形，然后确定其顶点和ROI之间的空间关系。 然后将第一多边形的顶点固定在ROI的边界和内部，使得在ROI上形成第二多边形。 对第一多边形的所有顶点重复该过程，使得第二多边形折叠到ROI上。 然后使用这个折叠的第二个多边形来校正光学接近度。

公开(公告)号：US20100175043A1

公开(公告)日：2010-07-08

申请号：US12349108

申请日：2009-01-06

申请人： Maharaj Mukherjee ,  James A. Culp ,  Scott M. Mansfield ,  Kafai Lai ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth

发明人： Maharaj Mukherjee ,  James A. Culp ,  Scott M. Mansfield ,  Kafai Lai ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth

IPC分类号： G06F17/50

CPC分类号： G03F1/36 ,  G03F1/70

摘要： A method is provided for modeling lithographic processes in the design of photomasks for the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits, and more particularly for simulating intermediate range flare effects. For a region of influence (ROI) from first ROI1 of about 5λ/NA to distance ROI2 when the point spread function has a slope that is slowly varying according to a predetermined criterion, then mask shapes at least within the distance range from ROI1 to ROI2 are smoothed prior to computing the SOCS convolutions. The method provides a fast method for simulating intermediate range flare effects with sufficient accuracy.

摘要翻译： 提供了一种用于在用于制造半导体集成电路的光掩模的设计中对光刻工艺进行建模的方法，更具体地说，用于模拟中间范围闪光效应。 对于当点扩散函数具有根据预定标准缓慢变化的斜率时，从约5λ/ NA的第一ROI1到距离ROI2的影响区域（ROI），则至少在从ROI1到ROI2的距离范围内的掩模形状 在计算SOCS卷积之前进行平滑处理。 该方法提供了一种用于以足够的精度模拟中等范围闪光效果的快速方法。

公开(公告)号：US20100175042A1

公开(公告)日：2010-07-08

申请号：US12349104

申请日：2009-01-06

申请人： Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Ioana Graur

发明人： Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Ioana Graur

IPC分类号： G06F17/50

CPC分类号： G03F7/70441 ,  G03F1/36 ,  G03F7/705

摘要： The present invention relates to the modeling of lithographic processes for use in the design of photomasks for the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits, and particularly to the modeling of the complex effects due to interaction of the illuminating light with the mask topography. According to the invention, an isofield perturbation to a thin mask representation of the mask is provided by determining, for the components of the illumination, differences between the electric field on a feature edge having finite thickness and on the corresponding feature edge of a thin mask representation. An isofield perturbation is obtained from a weighted coherent combination of the differences for each illumination polarization. The electric field of a mask having topographic edges is represented by combining a thin mask representation with the isofield perturbation applied to each edge of the mask.

摘要翻译： 本发明涉及用于制造半导体集成电路的光掩模设计中使用的光刻工艺的建模，特别涉及由于照明光与掩模形貌的相互作用引起的复杂效应的建模。 根据本发明，通过确定对于照明的组分，具有有限厚度的特征边缘上的电场与薄掩模的相应特征边缘之间的差异来确定对掩模的薄掩模表示的异场扰动 表示。 从每个照明偏振的差的加权相干组合获得异场扰动。 通过将薄掩模表示与应用于掩模的每个边缘的异场扰动组合来表示具有形貌边缘的掩模的电场。

公开(公告)号：US20090185740A1

公开(公告)日：2009-07-23

申请号：US12015768

申请日：2008-01-17

申请人： Jaione Tirapu-Azpiroz ,  Kafai Lai ,  David O. S. Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

发明人： Jaione Tirapu-Azpiroz ,  Kafai Lai ,  David O. S. Melville ,  Alan E. Rosenbluth ,  Kehan Tian

IPC分类号： G06K9/00

CPC分类号： G03F7/705 ,  G03F1/36

摘要： A method, system, computer program product and table lookup system for calculating image intensity for a mask used in integrated circuit processing are disclosed. A method may comprise: decomposing a Manhattan polygon of the mask into decomposed areas based on parallel edges of the Manhattan polygon along only one dimension; determining a convolution of each decomposed area based on a table lookup; determining a sum of coherent systems contribution of the Manhattan polygon based on the convolutions of the decomposed areas; and outputting the determined sum of coherent system contribution for analyzing the mask.

摘要翻译： 公开了一种用于计算集成电路处理中使用的掩模的图像强度的方法，系统，计算机程序产品和表查找系统。 方法可以包括：基于曼哈顿多边形沿着一个维度的平行边缘，将掩模的曼哈顿多边形分解为分解区域; 基于表查找确定每个分解区域的卷积; 基于分解区域的卷积确定曼哈顿多边形的相干系统贡献的总和; 并输出确定的用于分析掩模的相干系统贡献的总和。