Semiconductor fabrication design rule loophole checking for design for manufacturability optimization

A computer program product for optimizing fabrication of a wafer, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises instructions to:

• generate a process assumption band for an element of the wafer, the process assumption band depicting a shape of the element based on a set of process variations in a photolithographic process used for fabricating the wafer;
• generate a process variation band for the element of the wafer based on an optical process correction simulation of the photolithographic process using design rules associated with the wafer;
• determine a target band for the element, the target band comprising an on-wafer polygon of a circuit design layout;
• determine a relation between the process assumption band and the process variation band based on the target band;
• responsive to determining that the process variation band is outside the process assumption band with respect to the target band, identify a space rule to check at a location of the target band;
• and
• responsive to determining that the process assumption band is outside the process variation band with respect to the target band, identify an enclosure rule to check at a location of the target band.

A method for optimizing the fabrication of a wafer, the method comprising:

• generating a process assumption (PA) band for an element of the wafer based on one or more process assumptions, the PA band comprising a positive 3 sigma outer edge and a negative 3 sigma inner edge;
• generating a process variation (PV) band for the element of the wafer, the PV band comprising an inner edge that defines an expected minimum area the element can occupy on the wafer when printed under all process conditions and an outer edge that defines an expected maximum area the element can occupy when printed under a partial subset of the process conditions;
• and
• comparing the PA band and the PV band to identify a corner rounding error.