Patent ID: 7386817
Filing Date: 2008-06-10
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of determining a stopping power of a design structure of an integrated circuit with respect to a traveling particle, the method comprising: providing design information of the design structure comprising a back-end-of-line layer of the integrated circuit which includes N interconnect layers, N being an integer greater than 1; dividing each interconnect layer of the N interconnect layers into multiple pixels, such that the multiple pixels of the back-end-of-line layer form a three dimensional array of pixels; determining a first path of the traveling particle in a first interconnect layer of the N interconnect layers; identifying M path pixels of the multiple pixels of the first interconnect layer on the first path of the traveling particle, M being a positive integer; determining a first loss energy lost by the traveling particle due to its completely passing through a first pixel of the M path pixels; comparing the first loss energy and a first starting energy, the first starting energy being an energy of the traveling particle when it enters the first pixel of the M path pixels; and determining that the traveling particle gets absorbed by the first pixel of the M path pixels if, as a result of said comparing the first loss energy, the first loss energy is greater than the first starting energy.