Error diffusion and grid shift in lithography
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsPei-Yi Liu, Shy-Jay Lin, Wen-Chuan Wang, Jaw-Jung Shin, Burn Jeng Lin
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Abstract
The present disclosure involves a method of data preparation in lithography processes. The method of data preparation includes providing an integrated circuit (IC) layout design in a graphic database system (GDS) grid, and converting the IC layout design GDS grid to a second exposure grid by applying an error diffusion and a grid shift technique to a sub-pixel exposure grid.
Claims20
A method for use in a lithography process, comprising:
- providing an integrated circuit (IC) layout design in a graphic database system (GDS) grid;
- converting the IC layout design GDS grid to a sub-pixel exposure grid;
- applying an error diffusion technique to the sub-pixel exposure grid, wherein the sub-pixel exposure grid is represented by a first volume of data;
- applying a grid shift technique to the sub-pixel exposure grid to generate a grid-shifted exposure grid;
- converting the sub-pixel exposure grid to an exposure grid with a larger pixel size;
- adding the exposure grid to the grid-shifted exposure grid to generate a second exposure grid, wherein the second exposure grid is represented by a second volume of data that is less than the first volume of data.
A method for providing an exposure grid in lithography, comprising:
- providing an integrated circuit (IC) layout design in a graphic database system (GDS) grid;
- converting the IC design layout GDS grid to a sub-pixel exposure grid with pixel size from 0.5 nm to 8.0 nm, wherein the sub-pixel exposure grid is represented by a first volume of data;
- applying a Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion algorithm to the sub-pixel exposure grid;
- applying a grid shift to the sub-pixel exposure grid to generate a grid-shifted exposure grid;
- converting the sub-pixel exposure grid to an exposure grid with a larger pixel size than the pixel size of the sub-pixel exposure grid;
- and
- combining the exposure grid with the grid-shifted exposure grid to generate a second exposure grid, wherein the second exposure grid is represented by a second volume of data that is less than the first volume of data.
A method of providing an exposure grid for a lithography process, comprising:
- providing an integrated circuit (IC) layout design in a graphic database system (GDS) grid with a plurality of polygons in a two-dimensional array of pixels coordinate system;
- applying a proximity correction process to the IC layout design GDS grid;
- converting the IC layout design GDS grid to a sub-pixel exposure grid with a plurality of polygons in a two-dimensional array of pixels coordinate system, wherein the sub-pixel exposure grid is represented by a first volume of data;
- applying the Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion to the sub-pixel exposure grid;
- applying multiple grid shifts to the sub-pixel exposure grid to generate a grid-shifted exposure grid;
- converting the sub-pixel exposure grid to an exposure grid with a pixel size that is two times the pixel size of the sub-pixel exposure grid;
- and
- adding the exposure grid to the grid-shifted exposure grid to generate a second exposure grid, wherein the second exposure grid is represented by a second volume of data that is less than the first volume of data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.