Double patterning coloring with color balancing
AssigneeCadence Design Systems, Inc.
InventorXiaojun Wang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for balancing the assignment of shapes from a portion of an IC design layout to different masks. The method of some embodiments assigns the shapes to a plurality of masks in a manner that a variation between the numbers of shapes assigned to each mask is within a certain threshold. The method of some embodiments performs a separate analysis for shapes which are outside of a threshold distance from any other shapes.
Claims23
A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program for balancing a circuit design layout, the program comprising sets of instructions that are executed by a processor of a computing system to cause the processor to perform a plurality of acts that comprise:
- receiving a layer of the design layout including a plurality of shapes;
- performing an analysis on the layer and assigning the plurality of shapes to different masks based at least in part upon the analysis to bring respective total areas of shapes assigned to the different masks within a threshold value for the different masks, wherein the plurality of shapes already exist in the layer;
- and
- sending mask assignments to an output.
A method for assigning shapes to masks, the method comprising:
- executing a sequence of instructions with a processor of a computing system to perform a process, the process comprising:
- receiving a plurality of shapes that already exist in a circuit design layout;
- assigning the plurality of shapes to multiple masks in a manner that a variation between respective numbers of respective shapes assigned to the multiple masks is within a certain threshold;
- and
- sending resulting mask assignments to the output.
A method for assigning the shapes of a design layout to different masks, the method comprising:
- executing a sequence of instructions with a processor of a computing system to perform a process, the process comprising:
- receiving a layer of the design layout including a plurality of shapes;
- identifying a set of shape sets, a shape set comprising multiple shapes such that at least one pair of shapes are within a threshold distance of each other, wherein no shape within the shape set is within the threshold distance of another shape in another shape set of the set of shape sets;
- identifying a set of isolated shapes that are not within the threshold distance of each other;
- performing a first analysis on the set of shape sets to assign the multiple shapes of the shape set to a plurality of masks;
- performing a second analysis on the set of isolated shapes to assign at least one isolated shape to a mask to reduce a difference in respective cumulative measurements of the plurality of shapes assigned to the plurality of masks;
- and
- sending mask assignments to an output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.