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US 7,024,638 B2Granted
Method for creating patterns for producing integrated circuits
AssigneeCadence Design Systems, Inc.
InventorsLouis K. Scheffer, Kenji Yoshida, Yoshikuni Abe, Aki Fujimura, Robert C. Pack
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To increase the writing speed of masks, context information can be used to distinguish the attributes of portions of the mask that are critical from attributes, and portions, that are less critical. By using this information, which may be derived from the design context of the features, the mask can be written at a higher speed without sacrificing the accuracy of the important attributes or features.
Claims34
A method comprising:
- generating an integrated circuit design;
- creating a design database containing design data for a layer of the design;
- creating context information for features of the layer of the design;
- analyzing the context information to identify important attributes of features of the layer of the design;
- partitioning the layer of the design into a plurality of physical regions;
- assigning each feature to one or more of the plurality of physical regions based upon the importance of the attributes of the feature;
- and
- devising a writing plan to write each feature within the corresponding physical region.
5 more elements
A system comprising:
- means for generating an integrated circuit design;
- means for creating a design database containing design data for a layer of the design;
- means for creating context information for features of the layer of the design;
- means for analyzing the context information to identify the important attributes of features of the layer of the design;
- means for partitioning the layer of the design into a plurality of physical regions;
- means for assigning each feature to one or more of the plurality of physical regions, based upon its attributes;
- and
- means for devising a writing plan to write each important feature within the corresponding physical region.
5 more elements
A method comprising:
- generating an integrated circuit design data having a plurality of polygons;
- determining a context information from the integrated circuit design data;
- analyzing features of the design data with the context information to distinguish important attributes of features from unimportant attributes and features;
- and
- adjusting a mask writing process to write each feature with an accuracy commensurate with the importance of the attributes of that feature.
2 more elements
A system comprising:
- means for generating an integrated circuit design data having a plurality of polygons;
- means for determining a context information from the integrated circuit design data;
- means for analyzing features of the design data with the context information to distinguish important attributes of features from unimportant attributes;
- and
- means for adjusting a mask writing process to write each feature with an accuracy commensurate with the importance of the attributes of that feature.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.