Method and system for layout enhancement based on inter-cell correlation

A method, comprising:

• providing a first design layout comprising a plurality of cells;
• performing a lithography enhancement operation on a first cell of the plurality of cells to provide a first updated cell;
• providing a layout-dependent model comprising a mapping of edge segments of polygons of cells before lithography enhancement and after lithography enhancement;
• and
• updating a second cell of the plurality of cells by reshaping polygons of the second cell based on the first updated cell and the layout-dependent model to provide a second updated cell,
• wherein the layout-dependent model is an artificial neural network having a feed-forward structure and comprises an input layer, a hidden layer and an output layer, and the hidden layer comprises nodes interconnected through connections with respective weights,
• wherein at least one of the providing, performing, deriving, and updating is executed by one or more processors.

A system, comprising one or more processors and one or more programs including instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:

• provide a design layout comprising a plurality of cells;
• update a first cell of the plurality of cells using optical proximity correction in the absence of information on remaining cells in the design layout to provide a first updated cell and a data set;
• receive an enhancement model;
• partition a segment contour of a second cell in the design layout into a plurality of edge segments;
• update the segment contour of the second cell based on the data set and a plurality of layout-dependent parameters of the second cell to provide a second updated cell;
• wherein the plurality of layout-dependent parameters of the second cell comprise at least one of:
• a first parameter representing an exposure intensity value for a target edge segment of the second cell;
• a second parameter representing a spatial relationship between the target edge segment and a plurality of neighboring patterns within a neighborhood zone surrounding the target edge segment;
• or
• a third parameter representing a relative inter-cell distance between the second cell and the first cell;
• and
• manufacture a mask based on the first updated cell and the second updated cell in the design layout.