Generative adversarial networks for generating physical design layout patterns

A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by at least one computing device to cause the at least one computing device to perform steps of:

• selecting as training data a set of physical design layout patterns of features in a given layer of a given patterned structure;
• converting the physical design layout patterns into two-dimensional arrays, a given two-dimensional array for a given physical design layout pattern comprising entries for different locations in the given layer of the given patterned structure with values representing presence of the features at the different locations;
• training, utilizing the two-dimensional arrays, a generative adversarial network (GAN) comprising a discriminator neural network and a generator neural network;
• and
• generating one or more synthetic two-dimensional arrays utilizing the trained generator neural network of the GAN, a given one of the synthetic two-dimensional arrays comprising entries for different locations in the given layer of a new physical design layout pattern with values representing presence of the features at the different locations of the new physical design layout pattern.

An apparatus comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured for:
• selecting as training data a set of physical design layout patterns of features in a given layer of a given patterned structure;
• converting the physical design layout patterns into two-dimensional arrays, a given two-dimensional array for a given physical design layout pattern comprising entries for different locations in the given layer of the given patterned structure with values representing presence of the features at the different locations;
• training, utilizing the two-dimensional arrays, a generative adversarial network (GAN) comprising a discriminator neural network and a generator neural network;
• and
• generating one or more synthetic two-dimensional arrays utilizing the trained generator neural network of the GAN, a given one of the synthetic two-dimensional arrays comprising entries for different locations in the given layer of a new physical design layout pattern with values representing presence of the features at the different locations of the new physical design layout pattern.