Revisiting the layout decomposition problem for double patterning lithography

Andrew B. Kahng; Chul-Hong Park; Xu Xu; Hailong Yao

doi:10.1117/12.801992

17 October 2008 Revisiting the layout decomposition problem for double patterning lithography

Andrew B. Kahng, Chul-Hong Park, Xu Xu, Hailong Yao

Proceedings Volume 7122, Photomask Technology 2008; 71220N (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.801992
Event: SPIE Photomask Technology, 2008, Monterey, California, United States

Abstract

In double patterning lithography (DPL) layout decomposition for 45nm and below process nodes, two features must be assigned opposite colors (corresponding to different exposures) if their spacing is less than the minimum coloring spacing.^{5, 11, 14} However, there exist pattern configurations for which pattern features separated by less than the minimum coloring spacing cannot be assigned different colors. In such cases, DPL requires that a layout feature be split into two parts. We address this problem using a layout decomposition algorithm that incorporates integer linear programming (ILP), phase conflict detection (PCD), and node-deletion bipartization (NDB) methods. We evaluate our approach on both real-world and artificially generated testcases in 45nm technology. Experimental results show that our proposed layout decomposition method effectively decomposes given layouts to satisfy the key goals of minimized line-ends and maximized overlap margin. There are no design rule violations in the final decomposed layout. While we have previously reported other facets of our research on DPL pattern decomposition,6 the present paper differs from that work in the following key respects: (1) instead of detecting conflict cycles and splitting nodes in conflict cycles to achieve graph bipartization,⁶ we split all nodes of the conflict graph at all feasible dividing points and then formulate a problem of bipartization by ILP, PCD⁸and NDB⁹ methods; and (2) instead of reporting unresolvable conflict cycles, we report the number of deleted conflict edges to more accurately capture the needed design changes in the experimental results.

Citation Download Citation

Andrew B. Kahng, Chul-Hong Park, Xu Xu, and Hailong Yao "Revisiting the layout decomposition problem for double patterning lithography", Proc. SPIE 7122, Photomask Technology 2008, 71220N (17 October 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.801992

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