Mask cost reduction with circuit performance consideration for self-aligned double patterning

Hongbo Zhang, Yuelin Du, Martin D. F. Wong, Kai-Yuan Chao

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference proceedingpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Double patterning lithography (DPL) is the enabling technology for printing in sub-32nm nodes. In the EDA literature, researchers have been focusing on double-exposure double-patterning (DEDP) DPL for printing arbitrary 2D features where the layout decomposition problem for double exposure is an interesting graph coloring problem. But due to overlay errors, it is very difficult for DEDP to print even 1D features. A more promising DPL technology is self-aligned double patterning (SADP) for 1D design. SADP first prints dense lines and then trims away the portions not on the design by a cut mask. The complexity of cut mask is very high, adding to the skyrocketing manufacturing cost. In this paper we present a mask cost reduction method with circuit performance consideration for SADP. This is the first paper to focus on the mask cost reduction issue for SADP from a design perspective. We simplify the polygons on the cut mask, by formulating the problem as a constrained shortest path problem. Experimental results show that with a set of layouts in 28nm technology, we can largely reduce the complexity of cut polygons, with little impact on performance.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of The 16th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, ASP-DAC 2011
PublisherIEEE
Pages787-792
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9781424475155
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Jan 2011
Event16th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, ASP-DAC 2011 - Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama, Japan
Duration: 25 Jan 201128 Jan 2011
https://www.aspdac.com/aspdac2011/ (Conference website)
https://www.aspdac.com/aspdac2011/archive/program/ (Conference programme)
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/5716646/proceeding (Conference proceedings)

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, ASP-DAC
ISSN (Print)2153-6961
ISSN (Electronic)2153-697X

Conference

Conference16th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, ASP-DAC 2011
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityYokohama
Period25/01/1128/01/11
Internet address

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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