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Apparatus and methods for determining critical area of semiconductor design data

  • US 6,918,101 B1
  • Filed: 10/24/2002
  • Issued: 07/12/2005
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2001
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for determining a critical area of at least a portion of a design layout, the design layout comprising design shapes, the design shapes comprising design shapes artifacts, the method comprising:

  • dividing the design layout into a plurality of points;

    for each point, determining a critical radius corresponding to at least one defect type, wherein the determination is based on a plurality of distances between the each point and one or more neighboring design shape artifacts, without iteratively changing defect size or dimensions of the design shapes;

    for each point, defining a probability of fail function based upon the critical radius; and

    for each point, defining the probability of fail function to be equal to zero when a radius of a defect is smaller than the critical radius; and

    for each point, defining the probability of fail function to be equal to one when the radius of the defect is larger than the critical radius.

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