State-of-the-art OPC recipes for production semiconductor manufacturing are fine-tuned, often artfully crafted parameter sets are designed to achieve design fidelity and maximum process window across the enormous variety of patterns in a given design level. In the typical technology lifecycle, the process for creating a recipe is iterative. In the initial stages, very little to no “real” design content is available for testing. Therefore, an engineer may start with the recipe from a previous node; adjust it based on known ground rules and a few test patterns and/or scaled designs, and then refine it based on hardware results. As the technology matures, more design content becomes available to refine the recipe, but it becomes more difficult to make major changes without significantly impacting the overall technology scope and schedule. The dearth of early design information is a major risk factor: unforeseen patterning difficulties (e.g. due to holes in design rules) are costly when caught late.
To mitigate this risk, we propose an automated flow that is capable of producing large-scale realistic design content, and then optimizing the OPC recipe parameters to maximize the process window for this layout. The flow was tested with a triple-patterned 10nm node 1X metal level. First, design-rule clean layouts were produced with a tool called Layout Schema Generator (LSG). Next, the OPC recipe was optimized on these layouts, with a resulting reduction in the number of hotspots. For experimental validation, the layouts were placed on a test mask, and the predicted hotspots were compared with hardware data.
Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) becomes more important with every new technology node. Complex patterning issues can no longer wait to be detected experimentally using test sites because of compressed technology development schedules. Simulation must be used to discover complex interactions between an iteration of the design rules, and a simultaneous iteration of an intended patterning technology. The problem is often further complicated by an incomplete definition of the patterning space. The DTCO process must be efficient and thoroughly interrogate the legal design space for a technology to be successful. In this paper we present our view of DTCO, called Design and Patterning Exploration. Three emphasis areas are identified and explained with examples: Technology Definition, Technology Learning, and Technology Refinement. The Design and Patterning Exploration flows are applied to a logic 1.3x metal routing layer. Using these flows, yield limiting patterns are identified faster using random layout generation, and can be ruled out or tracked using a database of problem patterns. At the same time, a pattern no longer in the set of rules should not be considered during OPC tuning. The OPC recipe may then be adjusted for better performance on the legal set of pattern constructs. The entire system is dynamic, and users must be able to access related teams output for faster more accurate understanding of design and patterning interactions. In the discussed example, the design rules and OPC recipe are tuned at the same time, leading to faster design rule revisions, as well as improved patterning through more customized OPC and RET.
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