Structure and method for placement, sizing and shaping of dummy structures
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsSebastian Schmidt, Thomas Schafbauer, Hang Liu, Yayi Wei
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A material layer on a substrate being processed, e.g. to form chips, includes one or more functional structures. In order to control pattern density during fabrication of the chip, dummy fill structures of different sizes and shapes are added to the chip at different distances from the functional structures of the material layer. In particular, the placement, size and shape of the dummy structures are determined as a function of a distance to, and density of, the functional structures of the material layer.
Claims21
1-4. (canceled)
A method for use in fabricating a chip, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a substrate;
- forming a plurality of layers on the substrate, each layer having one or more functional areas;
- forming one or more dummy structures on at least a first layer of the layers, wherein the forming one or more dummy structures comprises the substeps of:
- determining a density and location of at least one functional area on the first layer;
- and
- adding dummy structures to the first layer as a function of the determined density and determined location, wherein the adding includes determining a placement of one dummy structure as a function of the width and density of functional areas within a predetermined distance of a location, and determining a size of the one dummy structure as a function of the determined placement.
A method for use in fabricating a chip, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a substrate;
- forming a plurality of layers on the substrate, each layer having one or more functional areas;
- forming one or more dummy structures on at least a first layer of the layers, wherein the forming dummy structures comprises the substeps of:
- determining a density and location of functional areas on the first layer in relation to a location being processed;
- and
- adding dummy structures to the first layer as a function of the determined density and determined location, the dummy structures each having placement determined as a function of the width and density of the functional areas, size determined as a function of the determined placement, and shape determined as a function of the determined size.
A method for placing dummy structures on a chip, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a substrate;
- forming a plurality of layers on the substrate, each layer having one or more functional areas;
- forming one or more dummy structures on at least a first layer of the layers, wherein the forming dummy structures comprises the substeps of:
- determining a numerical density of functional areas on the first layer within a first distance;
- determining a weighted sum of a pattern density within the first distance;
- determining a placement of a dummy structure based at least in part on the weighted sum and the numerical density;
- and
- determining a size of the dummy structure based at least in part on the placement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.