Patent ID: 6127071
Filing Date: 2000-10-03
Classification: G03F

Abstract:
A method for designing a photolithographic mask pattern including serifs for correcting severe corner rounding and line end foreshortening effects occurring in a line-end portion of a microlithographic circuit as a result of a photolithographic process, said method including:modeling aerial image intensity or final photoresist pattern for said photolithographic process as a convolution or the square of a convolution between said mask and an intensity/amplitude kernel function having an effective range r in x and y directions;designing said mask to include a line end portion of a width w and including an edge defining two corners for illumination by an imaging system during said photolithographic process, each corner having an associated corner region outside said line-end portion for locating of one or more serifs, whereby for closely spaced lines in said mask, said serif functions as a co-serif of two or more nearby wire lines.