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US 7,249,342 B2Granted
Method and system for context-specific mask writing
AssigneeCadence Design Systems, Inc.
InventorsRobert C. Pack, Louis K. Scheffer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for generating lithography marks includes generating integrated circuit design data and using context information from the integrated circuit design data to write a mask.
Claims30
A method for generating a lithography mask, comprising:
- generating integrated circuit design data;
- analyzing the integrated circuit design data to generate context information for features of a mask without the use of tags, the contextual information comprising priority, ordering, manufacturing, circuit context, resolution, criticality, distortion, topological properties, limitations, weighting factors, tolerances, or writing parameter information of the mask elements;
- configuring mask design data to emphasize the context priority, ordering, manufacturing, circuit context, resolution, criticality, distortion, topological properties, limitations, weighting factors, tolerances, or writing parameter information of the features in the mask design based on the context information;
- and
- using the mask data to write the mask features wherein some or all of the mask features receive mask writing resources allocated based upon the context information by adjusting time, energy, order, or resolution of the mask writing resources.
2 more elements
An apparatus for generating a lithography mask, comprising:
- means for generating integrated circuit design data;
- means for analyzing the integrated circuit design data to generate context information for features of a mask without the use of tags, the contextual information comprising priority, ordering, manufacturing, circuit context, resolution, criticality, distortion, topological properties, limitations, weighting factors, tolerances, or writing parameter information of the mask elements;
- means for configuring mask design data to emphasize the context priority, ordering, manufacturing, circuit context, resolution, criticality, distortion, topological properties, limitations, weighting factors, tolerances, or writing parameter information of the features in the mask design based on the context information;
- and
- means for using the mask data to write the mask features wherein some or all of the mask features receive mask writing resources allocated based upon the context information by adjusting time, energy, order, or resolution of the mask writing resources.
2 more elements
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having executable code to execute a process for generating a lithography mask, the process comprising:
- generating integrated circuit design data;
- analyzing the integrated circuit design data to generate context information for features of a mask without the use of tags, the contextual information comprising priority, ordering, manufacturing, circuit context, resolution, criticality, distortion, topological properties, limitations, weighting factors, tolerances, or writing parameter information of the mask elements;
- configuring mask design data to emphasize the context priority, ordering, manufacturing, circuit context, resolution, criticality, distortion, topological properties, limitations, weighting factors, tolerances, or writing parameter information of the features in the mask design based on the context information;
- and
- using the mask data to write the mask features wherein some or all of the mask features receive mask writing resources allocated based upon the context information by adjusting time, energy, order, or resolution of the mask writing resources.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.