Differentiable Edge-based OPC
This addresses the challenge of balancing accuracy and practicality in OPC for semiconductor manufacturing, offering a promising solution for industrial adoption.
The paper tackles the problem of optical proximity correction (OPC) in semiconductor manufacturing by proposing DiffOPC, a differentiable framework that combines edge-based and pixel-based approaches. The result is a method that achieves lower edge placement error while reducing manufacturing cost by half compared to state-of-the-art techniques.
Optical proximity correction (OPC) is crucial for pushing the boundaries of semiconductor manufacturing and enabling the continued scaling of integrated circuits. While pixel-based OPC, termed as inverse lithography technology (ILT), has gained research interest due to its flexibility and precision. Its complexity and intricate features can lead to challenges in mask writing, increased defects, and higher costs, hence hindering widespread industrial adoption. In this paper, we propose DiffOPC, a differentiable OPC framework that enjoys the virtue of both edge-based OPC and ILT. By employing a mask rule-aware gradient-based optimization approach, DiffOPC efficiently guides mask edge segment movement during mask optimization, minimizing wafer error by propagating true gradients from the cost function back to the mask edges. Our approach achieves lower edge placement error while reducing manufacturing cost by half compared to state-of-the-art OPC techniques, bridging the gap between the high accuracy of pixel-based OPC and the practicality required for industrial adoption, thus offering a promising solution for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.