Patent ID: 8266554
Filing Date: 2012-09-11
Classification: G03F

Abstract:
1. A method for obtaining mask and source patterns for printing integrated circuit patterns on a semiconductor substrate using a computer including a non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a computer program embodied therein, comprising: providing initial representations of a plurality of mask and source patterns; identifying long-range and short-range factors in the representations of the plurality of mask and source patterns; providing a plurality of clips including a specified number of mask patterns, and specifying short-range factors having overlapping ranges for each of the clips; determining an initial processing priority for the plurality of clips; determining a patterning relationship between integrated circuit patterns and the mask and source patterns; defining a primary objective expressing the printability of the integrated circuit patterns in terms of the patterning relationship; defining and iteratively solving at least one master problem employing the primary objective with at least one cut, to generate values for the long-range factors; defining and iteratively solving subproblems employing a second objective, using the specified short-range factors from the plurality of clips having a defined processing priority, for generating values for the short-range factors and for generating the cut for the master problem; swapping the clips meeting a specified high processing priority into the master problem which were associated with solving subproblems, and swapping the clips not meeting the specified high processing priority from being in the master problem to being associated with the subproblems; and generating, by using computer, new masks and source patterns using the values of the long-range and short-range factors according to their representations.