Patent ID: 8230372

Claim:
A method, in a data processing system, for electrical yield enhancement retargeting of photolithographic layouts, the method comprising: performing, by an electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism in the data processing system, optical proximity correction on a set of target patterns in order to produce a set of optical proximity correction mask shapes; generating, by the electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism, a set of lithographic contours for each of the set of optical proximity correction mask shapes; determining, by the electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism, electrical yield sensitivities for at least one shape in a set of shapes in the set of target patterns; determining, by the electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism, an amount and a direction of retargeting for each of the at least one shape in the set of shapes based on the electrical yield sensitivity of the shape, wherein the amount and the direction of retargeting for each shape is determined by the method comprising: determining, by the electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism, a first yield response value for a negative distance away from an initial edge associated with the negative lithographic variation in the shape, wherein the first yield response value is determined using a first equation that is: 1 +k 2 (− a+r ) wherein −a is the negative distance away from the initial edge associated with the negative lithographic variation in the shape, wherein k 2 is a slope associated with the minimum yield of the shape and the yield at the negative distance away from the initial yield, and wherein r is a retargeting value; determining, by the electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism, a second yield response value for a positive distance from the initial edge associated with the positive lithographic variation in the shape, wherein the second yield response value is determined using a second equation that is: 1 −k 1 ( a+r ) wherein a is the positive distance away from the initial edge associated with the positive lithographic variation in the shape, wherein k 1 is a slope associated with the minimum yield of the shape and the yield at the positive distance away from the initial value yield, and wherein r is the retargeting value; determining, by the electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism, the amount and the direction of retargeting by setting the first yield response value equal to the second yield response value and solving for the retargeting value using a third equation that is: r = ( k 2 - k 1 ) ( k 2 + k 1 ) ⁢ a ; ⁢ and generating, by the electrical yield enhancement retargeting mechanism, a new set of target patterns with retargeted edges for each shape in the at least one shape based on the amount and the direction of retargeting.