Calibre nmCLSRAF

Calibre nmCLSRAF performs ILT-guided, template-based SRAF synthesis on curvilinear designs to ensure precise lithography control, consistency in sub-resolution assist feature (SRAF) placement, compliance with mask manufacturing (MRC) and rapid runtime for integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing.

Technical paper

Advanced ILT solutions to manufacture photonics designs

In the last decade, photonics technology has been an emerging technology for optical telecommunications and optical interconnects in microelectronics. As a result, a large diversity of photonics design methodologies has merged with very challenging scales and shapes. Manufacturing such curvy and critical photonics shapes requires advanced resolution enhancement techniques (RET), including inverse lithography techniques (ILT) with 193 nm immersion lithography. In this paper, we investigate the manufacturing challenges of several photonics devices using advanced ILT solutions and the impact of SRAF insertion on delivering good litho quality, including edge placement error (EPE), PVband, and line edge roughness (LER). We will demonstrate how our Calibre ILT solutions enable the manufacturing of the most challenging photonics designs.

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A integrated circuit and printed circuit board

Key Features

Curvilinear templates for full-chip SRAF insertion

Template-based approach offers lithography quality equivalent to ILT SRAFs in terms of process-window variation (PV band), common depth of focus (DOF) and image log slope (ILS), while significantly improving runtime efficiency— faster than native ILT SRAF synthesis.

Final Curvilinear SRAFs (Red) on contact layer (Blue) for random logics

Advanced node logic designs

Curvilinear SRAFs for best possible litho quality

Calibre nmCLSRAF incorporates the results from Calibre ILT engine to provide a viable curvilinear SRAF solution meeting the requirements of both DUV and EUV lithography process-specific criteria for SRAF synthesis.

Curvilinear SRAF (Red) insertion on a layer with Silicon Photonics Design (Green represents the main feature)

Specialty and SiPh Designs

Custom solutions for special SRAF requirements

Custom flow can be developed to meet additional requirements for curvilinear SRAF insertion in specialty designs, such as, the SRAF coverage and gaps suppression requirements specifically for silicon photonics applications.

Coverage check between ILT and template-based SRAFs on training patterns

Excellent performance

Fast and accurate curvilinear SRAF insertion

Calibre nmCLSRAF is a fast, rule-based curvilinear SRAF insertion solution based on the inverse lithography (ILT) results generated from the Calibre ILT engine.

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