Creating a situation repository

• US 7,707,542 B1
• Filed: 12/12/2006
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cadence Design Systems Incorporated (Cadence Group)
• Original Assignee: Cadence Design Systems Incorporated (Cadence Group)
• Inventors: McIntyre, Gregory R., Lai, Ya-Chieh, Moskewicz, Matthew W., Gennari, Frank E., Lam, Michael C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chiang; Jack
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dimyan; Magid Y
• Application Number:
  US11/609,904
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• Field of Search: 716/19, 716/21, 430/5
• US Class Current: 716/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2119/18 Manufacturability analysis or optimisation for manufacturability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/39 Circuit design at the physical level physical level design for reconfigurable circuits G06F30/347
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

Systems, methodologies and technologies for the analysis and transformation of integrated circuit layouts using situations are disclosed. A method for transforming an integrated circuit (IC) layout includes recognizing shapes within the IC layout, identifying features for each of the shapes and extracting situations for the respective features. Extracted situations can be used to improve optical proximity correction (OPC) of the IC layout. This improved OPC includes extracting the situations, simulating the situations to determine a set of the situations identified for modification based on failing to satisfy a desired OPC tolerance level, modifying the set of situations to improve satisfaction of the desired OPC tolerance level, and reintegrating the modified set of situations into the IC layout. Extracted situations can also be used to improve aerial image simulation of the IC layout. This improved aerial image simulation includes extracting the situations, simulating a subset of the situations to determine aerial images of the subset, and tiling the subset of situations to form a larger aerial image. Extracted situations can further be used to improve density analysis of the IC layout. This improved density analysis includes extracting the situations for a window of the IC layout, removing overlap from the window based on the extracted situations, calculating a density for each of the situations, and calculating a density for the window based on the density for each of the situations.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for performing an analysis for a printing system, comprising:

using a computer programmed for;

identifying situations for one or more layouts, wherein

the one or more layouts comprise a first arrangement of one or more shapes at a first location and a second arrangement of one or more one or more shapes at a second location, and

the first arrangement is different from the second arrangement in the one or more layouts;

characterizing the printing system by characterizing the situations, wherein

one of the situations is used to represent both the first arrangement and the second arrangement during the act of characterizing the printing system, and

the printing system is characterized by characterizing behaviors of the printing system based at least in part upon a subset of the one or more layouts; and

storing the situations in a memory or a disk of the computer or displaying the situations in a display device of the computer.

2. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the act of identifying the situations is based on edges.

3. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein said identifying situations comprises:

identifying edges; and

extracting and storing configurations around the edges.

4. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the act of identifying the situations comprises:

identifying edges;

extracting and storing configurations around the edges; and

merging shapes.

5. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the act of identifying situations comprises:

identifying edges;

extracting and storing configurations around the edges;

computing hash values for the configurations; and

storing the hash values.

6. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the act of identifying situations comprises:

identifying edges;

extracting and storing configurations around the edges;

computing hash values for the configurations based on shapes; and

resolving collisions of the hash values.

7. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the act of characterizing the situations includes performing optical characterization.

8. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the act of characterizing the situations includes performing optical characterization for each unique edge.

9. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the act of identifying the situations includes extracting the situations that are within a fixed Manhattan distance.

10. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the printing system comprises a lithographic or optical projection printing system.

11. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the one or more layouts are associated with one or more test chips.

12. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the one or more layouts are at least a part of one or more randomly generated designs.

13. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein:

the one or more layouts are at least a part of one or more real electronic circuit designs.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the act of identifying situations for one or more layouts comprises canonicalizing a first set of situations for the one or more layouts, a total number of the first set of situations is greater than a total number of the situations.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the situations which are identified constitute a canonical set of situations.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the act of identifying the situations further comprises:

identifying a first feature in a first situation of the situations;

identifying a second feature in a second situation of the situations, wherein the first feature and the second feature correspond to a same feature in the one or more layouts;

determining whether a conflict exists between a first image of the first feature and a second image of the second feature; and

resolving the conflict between the first image and the second image.

17. A computer implemented method for performing an analysis for a printing system, comprising:

using a computer programmed for;

identifying situations for one or more layouts, wherein

the one or more layouts comprise a first arrangement of one or more shapes at a first location and a second arrangement of one or more one or more shapes at a second location, and

the first arrangement is different from the second arrangement in the one or more layouts;

characterizing how well the one or more layouts behave in a lithographic system by optically characterizing the situations for the one or more layouts, wherein

one of the situations is used to represent both the first arrangement and the second arrangement during the act of characterizing the printing system, and

the lithographic system is characterized by characterizing behaviors of the lithographic system based at least in part upon a subset of the layouts; and

storing the situations in a computer memory or a computer disk or displaying the situations on a display device.

18. The computer implemented method according to claim 17, wherein the act of identifying the situations comprises:

identifying edges; and

extracting and storing configurations around the edges.

19. The computer implemented method according to claim 17, wherein the act of identifying the situations comprises:

identifying edges;

extracting and storing configurations around the edges;

computing hash values for the configurations; and

storing the hash values.

20. The computer implemented method according to claim 17, wherein the act of identifying the situations comprises:

identifying edges;

extracting and storing configurations around the edges;

computing hash values for the configurations based on shapes; and

resolving collisions of the hash values.

21. The computer implemented method according to claim 17, wherein:

the act of identifying the situations includes extracting the situations that are within a fixed Manhattan distance.

22. A computer implemented method for performing an analysis for a printing system, comprising:

using a computer programmed for;

identifying one or more configurations of shapes for one or more layouts, wherein

the one or more layouts comprise a first arrangement of one or more shapes at a first location and a second arrangement of one or more one or more shapes at a second location, and

the first arrangement is different from the second arrangement in the one or more layouts;

characterizing the printing system by optically characterizing the one or more configurations, wherein

one of the situations is used to represent both the first arrangement and the second arrangement during the act of characterizing the printing system, and

the printing system is characterized by characterizing behaviors of the printing system based at least in part upon a subset of the one or more layouts represented by the subset of the one or more configurations; and

storing the one or more configurations in a computer memory or a disk of the computer or displaying the one or more configurations on a display device of the computer.

23. The computer implemented method according to claim 22, wherein said identifying configurations comprises:

identifying edges; and

extracting and storing configurations around the edges.

24. The computer implemented method according to claim 22, wherein said identifying configurations comprises:

identifying edges;

extracting and storing configurations around the edges;

computing hash values for the configurations; and

storing the hash values.

25. A system for performing an analysis for a printing system, comprising:

a computer programmed for;

identifying situations for one or more layouts, wherein

the one or more layouts comprise a first arrangement of one or more shapes at a first location and a second arrangement of one or more one or more shapes at a second location, and

the first arrangement is different from the second arrangement in the one or more layouts;

characterizing the printing system by characterizing the situations, wherein

one of the situations is used to represent both the first arrangement and the second arrangement during the act of characterizing the printing system, and

the printing system is characterized by characterizing behaviors of the printing system based at least in part upon a subset of the one or more layouts; and

storing the situations in a memory or a disk of the computer or displaying the situations in a display device of the computer.

26. A system for performing an analysis for a printing system, comprising:

a computer for;

identifying situations for one or more layouts, wherein

the one or more layouts comprise a first arrangement of one or more shapes at a first location and a second arrangement of one or more one or more shapes at a second location, and

the first arrangement is different from the second arrangement in the one or more layouts;

characterizing how well the one or more layouts behave in a lithographic system by optically characterizing the situations for the one or more layouts, wherein

one of the situations is used to represent both the first arrangement and the second arrangement during the act of characterizing the printing system, and

the lithographic system is characterized by characterizing behaviors of the lithographic system based at least in part upon a subset of the layouts; and

storing the situations in a computer memory or a disk of the computer or displaying the situations on a display device.

27. A system for performing an analysis for performing an analysis for a printing system, comprising:

a computer programmed for;

identifying one or more configurations of shapes for one or more layouts, wherein

the one or more layouts comprise a first arrangement of one or more shapes at a first location and a second arrangement of one or more one or more shapes at a second location, and

the first arrangement is different from the second arrangement in the one or more layouts;

characterizing the printing system by optically characterizing the one or more configurations, wherein

one of the situations is used to represent both the first arrangement and the second arrangement during the act of characterizing the printing system, and

the printing system is characterized by characterizing behaviors of the printing system based at least in part upon a subset of the one or more layouts represented by the subset of the one or more configurations; and

storing the one or more configurations in a memory or a disk of the computer or displaying the one or more configurations on a display device.