Hotspot aware dose correction

1. A method for improving a lithographic process for imaging a portion of a design layout onto a substrate using a lithographic apparatus, the method comprising:

obtaining a relationship of a characteristic of one or more features in the portion with respect to dose;

obtaining a value of the characteristic; and

obtaining, by a hardware computer, a target dose based on the value of the characteristic and the relationship and on a dose associated with an anchor feature.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic is selected from a group consisting of critical dimension (CD), mask error, CD uniformity (CDU), process window, defocus, yield, probability of existence of defects, and stochastic effect.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic is mask error and wherein obtaining the relationship comprises obtaining a sensitivity of CD with respect to the dose and a value of the mask error enhancement factor (MEEF).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship is a function of positions of the one or more features in the portion of the design layout.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein target doses at a plurality of positions are represented as a map.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target dose is a target dose of a region of the design layout, the region having multiple features therein.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the target dose of the region is obtained from target doses and attributes of all or some individual features in the region, and/or wherein the target dose is obtained by calculating a weighted average of target doses of all or some individual features in the region.

8. A method comprising:

selecting a subset of one or more features from a plurality of features of a region of a patterning device pattern into a group of one or more selected features, based on a sensitivity of the feature to an optical parameter; and

determining a target optical parameter for the region from a characteristic of the group of one or more selected features in the region.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the group of one or more selected features comprises an anchor feature, and/or wherein the group of one or more selected features comprises a hot spot in the region, and/or wherein the group of one or more selected features comprises not all hot spots in the region.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

identifying hot spots in the region; and

including into the group of one or more selected features a plurality of hot spots with highest optical parameter sensitivity among the identified hot spots in the region.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

determining whether any hot spot in the region is defective under the target optical parameter for the region; and

responsive to at least one of the hot spots in the region being determined as defective, adjusting how the target optical parameter for the region is determined from the characteristic of the group of one or more selected features and redetermining the target optical parameter for the region.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions recorded thereon, the instructions configured to cause a hardware computer system to at least:

obtain a relationship of a characteristic of one or more features in a portion of a design layout with respect to dose, wherein the design layout is for being imaged onto a substrate using a lithographic apparatus as part of a lithographic process;

obtain a value of the characteristic; and

obtain a target dose based on the value of the characteristic and the relationship and on a dose associated with an anchor feature.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the characteristic is selected from a group consisting of critical dimension (CD), mask error, CD uniformity (CDU), process window, defocus, yield, probability of existence of defects, and stochastic effect.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the characteristic is mask error and wherein obtaining the relationship comprises obtaining a sensitivity of CD with respect to the dose and a value of the mask error enhancement factor (MEEF).

15. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the relationship is a function of positions of the one or more features in the portion of the design layout.

16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions recorded thereon, the instructions configured to cause a hardware computer system to at least:

selecting a subset of one or more features from a plurality of features of a region of a patterning device pattern into a group of one or more selected features, based on a sensitivity of the feature to an optical parameter; and

determining a target optical parameter for the region from a characteristic of the group of selected features in the region.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the group of one or more selected features comprises an anchor feature, and/or wherein the group of one or more selected features comprises a hot spot in the region, and/or wherein the group of one or more selected features comprises not all hot spots in the region.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the instructions are configured to cause the hardware computer system to:

identify hot spots in the region; and

include into the group of one or more selected features a plurality of hot spots with highest optical parameter sensitivity among the identified hot spots in the region.

19. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the instructions are configured to cause the hardware computer system to:

determine whether any hot spot in the region is defective under the target optical parameter for the region; and

responsive to at least one of the hot spots in the region being determined as defective, adjust how the target optical parameter for the region is determined from the characteristic of the group of one or more selected features and redetermining the target optical parameter for the region.

20. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the hardware computer system to determine the target optical parameter based on an optical parameter value associated with an anchor feature.