Structure and method for placement, sizing and shaping of dummy structures
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsSebastian Schmidt, Thomas Schafbauer, Hang Yip Liu, Yayi Wei
Life of this patent
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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.
Claims20
A method for use in fabricating a chip, the method comprising the steps of:
- determining a density and location of at least one functional area of a layer;
- and
- adding dummy structures to said layer as a function of the determined density and determined location, wherein the adding comprises the substeps of
- 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 said one dummy structure as a function of the determined placement.
A method for use in fabricating a chip, the method comprising the steps of:
- determining a density and location of functional areas of a layer in relation to a location being processed;
- and
- adding dummy structures to said layer as a function of the determined density and determined location, said 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:
- determining a numerical density of functional areas 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.