A Pattern Decomposition Algorithm For Dual Imaging Lithography

With the rapid downsizing of IC manufacturing technology node, lightwave would diffract in current photolithography technology, thus leading to severe distortion to layout figures. At present, double patterning (DP) technology is one of the most effective solutions to this problem.Layout fracturing, referring to fracturing polygons in layout into simpler figures, is essential in double patterning. Current polygon fracturing algorithms are not suitable for double patterning, because they would produce slivers and disconnected figures due to overlay error, and have different objectives compared to that of algorithm needed in double patterning.In this paper we propose a novel layout fracturing algorithm. It could eliminate slivers and solve disconnected figures problem with overlap introduced. It could also reduce the number of conflicts by reducing the number of rectangles after fracturing. Experiments show this algorithm is suitable for double patterning.First, we introduce background information of double patterning technology and polygon fracturing algorithms, and summarize major contributions of our algorithm. We illustrate our advantages by comparing different algorithms fracturing several common polygon examples in layout.Then, we define our fracturing problem and some concepts. Detailed introduction of our algorithm is given based on these definitions.Finally, we verify the functions and show the effectiveness of our algorithm from experiments, including comparison experiments between algorithm without overlap and our algorithm, and prove our algorithm is suitable for double patterning technology.