Abstract: Inverse lithography technology (ILT), also known as pixel-based optical proximity correction (PB-OPC), has shown promising capability in pushing the current 193 nm lithography to its limit. By treating the mask optimization process as an inverse problem in lithography, ILT provides a more complete exploration of the solution space and better pattern fidelity than the traditional edge-based OPC. However, the existing methods of ILT are extremely time-consuming due to the slow convergence of the optimization process. To address this issue, in this paper we propose a support vector machine (SVM) based layout retargeting method for ILT, which is designed to generate a good initial input mask for the optimization process and promote the convergence speed. Supervised by optimized masks of training layouts generated by conventional ILT, SVM models are learned and used to predict the initial pixel values in the ‘undefined areas’ of the new layout. By this process, an initial input mask close to the final optimized mask of the new layout is generated, which reduces iterations needed in the following optimization process. Manufacturability is another critical issue in ILT; however, the mask generated by our layout retargeting method is quite irregular due to the prediction inaccuracy of the SVM models. To compensate for this drawback, a spatial filter is employed to regularize the retargeted mask for complexity reduction. We implemented our layout retargeting method with a regularized level-set based ILT (LSB-ILT) algorithm under partially coherent illumination conditions. Experimental results show that with an initial input mask generated by our layout retargeting method, the number of iterations needed in the optimization process and runtime of the whole process in ILT are reduced by 70.8% and 69.0%, respectively.

Key words: Inverse lithography technology, Optical proximity correction, Layout retargeting, Support vector machine

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