A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segments

Abstract The feature size in Integrated Circuits (ICs) has been scaling down aggressively, thereby posing more challenges in their manufacturability. Conventional immersion lithography using a laser of 193 nm wavelength produces layouts having distortions that degrade performance significantly. To o...

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Main Authors: Sudipta Paul, Pritha Banerjee, Susmita Sur‐Kolay
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-07-01
Series:IET Circuits, Devices and Systems
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1049/cds2.12028
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author Sudipta Paul
Pritha Banerjee
Susmita Sur‐Kolay
author_facet Sudipta Paul
Pritha Banerjee
Susmita Sur‐Kolay
author_sort Sudipta Paul
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The feature size in Integrated Circuits (ICs) has been scaling down aggressively, thereby posing more challenges in their manufacturability. Conventional immersion lithography using a laser of 193 nm wavelength produces layouts having distortions that degrade performance significantly. To overcome this bottleneck, Next‐Generation Lithography (NGL) technologies are being developed. Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL), one of the popular NGLs, which uses a light of 13.5 nm wavelength. However, irregularities on the photo reflective surface of clear‐field masks used in EUVL, scatter the incident light and cause flare that in turn results in layout pattern distortions and critical dimension (CD) violations. One of the approaches to counter the effect of flare is to utilise dummy metal fills. But this incurs additional mask cost. Herein, a method to reduce the flare variation as well as the average flare distribution for a layout by perturbation of wire segments, without affecting performance at the post‐layout phase, is proposed. The results show reductions of 20% and 11% on an average in the flare variation and flare mean, respectively, compared to that for the original layout for two different flare models studied on three standard sets of benchmark suites. Consequently, a reduction in the dummy fill demand of a similar magnitude is thus obtained.
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publishDate 2021-07-01
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series IET Circuits, Devices and Systems
spelling doaj-art-29b57b2379444af39cc5ea2f11b66f522025-08-20T02:04:00ZengWileyIET Circuits, Devices and Systems1751-858X1751-85982021-07-0115431032910.1049/cds2.12028A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segmentsSudipta Paul0Pritha Banerjee1Susmita Sur‐Kolay2Advanced Computing and Microelectronics Unit Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata IndiaDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering University of Calcutta Kolkata IndiaAdvanced Computing and Microelectronics Unit Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata IndiaAbstract The feature size in Integrated Circuits (ICs) has been scaling down aggressively, thereby posing more challenges in their manufacturability. Conventional immersion lithography using a laser of 193 nm wavelength produces layouts having distortions that degrade performance significantly. To overcome this bottleneck, Next‐Generation Lithography (NGL) technologies are being developed. Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL), one of the popular NGLs, which uses a light of 13.5 nm wavelength. However, irregularities on the photo reflective surface of clear‐field masks used in EUVL, scatter the incident light and cause flare that in turn results in layout pattern distortions and critical dimension (CD) violations. One of the approaches to counter the effect of flare is to utilise dummy metal fills. But this incurs additional mask cost. Herein, a method to reduce the flare variation as well as the average flare distribution for a layout by perturbation of wire segments, without affecting performance at the post‐layout phase, is proposed. The results show reductions of 20% and 11% on an average in the flare variation and flare mean, respectively, compared to that for the original layout for two different flare models studied on three standard sets of benchmark suites. Consequently, a reduction in the dummy fill demand of a similar magnitude is thus obtained.https://doi.org/10.1049/cds2.12028light scatteringmasksminimisationnanolithographyultraviolet lithography
spellingShingle Sudipta Paul
Pritha Banerjee
Susmita Sur‐Kolay
A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segments
IET Circuits, Devices and Systems
light scattering
masks
minimisation
nanolithography
ultraviolet lithography
title A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segments
title_full A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segments
title_fullStr A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segments
title_full_unstemmed A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segments
title_short A study on flare minimisation in EUV lithography by post‐layout re‐allocation of wire segments
title_sort study on flare minimisation in euv lithography by post layout re allocation of wire segments
topic light scattering
masks
minimisation
nanolithography
ultraviolet lithography
url https://doi.org/10.1049/cds2.12028
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