System for and method of seeding an optical proximity correction (OPC) process

1. A method of seeding execution of an optical proximity correction (OPC) process, the method comprising:

receiving, at an input device of a computer, a subject pre-OPC design-signature for a subject pre-OPC design package;

selecting, by a processor of the computer and via interaction with an OPC database operatively connected to the computer, one amongst archived post-OPC design packages based on relatedness between the subject pre-OPC design-signature and archived post-OPC design-signatures corresponding to the archived post-OPC design packages, and thereby retrieving the selected archived post-OPC design package;

generating one or more seeds for use by the OPC process based on the selected archived post-OPC design package; and

performing at least one of the following including:

making one or more lithographic exposures based on a seeded post-OPC design package resulting from having performed the OPC process on the subject pre-OPC design package according to the one or more seeds;

fabricating, based on the seeded post-OPC design package, one or more semiconductor masks; or

fabricating, based on the seeded post-OPC design package, at least one component in a layer of a semiconductor integrated circuit.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the OPC database includes:

the archived post-OPC design packages of integrated circuits (ICs), each post OPC-design package including at least one cell-based representation of a post-OPC layout-layer;

the archived post-OPC design-signatures corresponding to the archived post-OPC design packages;

archived pre-OPC design-signatures of pre-OPC design packages of ICs corresponding to the archived post-OPC design-signatures;

data structures linking the archived post-OPC design packages and the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signatures; and

data structures linking the archived post-OPC design-signatures and corresponding archived pre-OPC design-signatures.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving a subject pre-OPC design-signature includes:

generating, by the processor of the computer, the subject pre-OPC design-signature based on the subject pre-OPC design package, wherein the subject pre-OPC design package including at least one cell-based representation of a pre-OPC layout-layer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting includes:

making comparisons, by the processor, between the subject pre-OPC design-signature and the archived post-OPC design-signatures;

selecting, by the processor, one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures based on the comparisons;

indexing, by the processor, the selected archived post-OPC design-signature into the OPC database and thereby retrieving the corresponding archived post-OPC design package as the selected post-OPC design package.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the making comparisons includes:

looking for an identical match between the subject pre-OPC design-signature and one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures; and

the selecting includes:

choosing, if an identical match is found, the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature to be the selected one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the making comparisons includes:

applying, for each of the archived post-OPC design-signatures, a closeness function to the subject pre-OPC design-signature and the post-OPC design-signature to obtain a corresponding closeness value; and

the selecting includes:

sorting the closeness values to find a closest one thereof and thereby the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature; and

choosing the closest-value-corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature to be the selected one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein:

the closeness function is a string metric such that the closeness value is a string-distance;

the making comparisons includes:

applying, for each of the archived post-OPC design-signatures, the string metric to the subject pre-OPC design-signature and the post-OPC design-signature to obtain the corresponding string-distance; and

the selecting includes:

sorting the string-distances to find a shortest one thereof and thereby the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature; and

choosing the shortest string-distance-corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature to be the selected one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

revising at least some default coefficients based on the one or more seeds; and

performing the OPC process on the subject pre-OPC design package according to the revised coefficients.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the at least one cell-based representation of a post-OPC layout-layer is a hierarchy of cells in which:

a cell including no other cells is a basic layout element (BLE);

a first cell including one or more BLEs and/or one or more second cells is a nestor cell such that the one or more BLEs included therein are nestee BLEs and/or the one or more second cells included therein are nestee cells;

an instance of a nestor cell can include one or more instances of a nestor cell;

a BLE that is not a nestee BLE is an independent cell;

a nestor cell that is not a nestee BLE is an independent cell; and

a post-OPC layout-layer is a hierarchical collection of BLEs;

each BLE is represented by one or more segments;

each segment is associated with a model-OPC bias value; and

the generating one or more seeds for the OPC process includes:

setting, for each BLE in the post-OPC layout-layer, the model-OPC bias value for each of the one or more segments in the BLE as corresponding one or more seeds for the OPC process based on the selected archived post-OPC design package.

10. A method of seeding execution of an optical proximity correction (OPC) process, the method comprising:

interfacing, with an input device of a computer, thereby to receive a subject pre-OPC design-signature for a subject pre-OPC design package;

making, via interaction with an OPC database operatively connected to the computer, comparisons between the subject pre-OPC design-signature and archived post-OPC design-signatures;

selecting one amongst the archived post-OPC design-signatures based on the comparisons and thereby retrieving a selected one amongst the archived post-OPC design packages corresponding to the archived post-OPC design-signatures;

generating one or more seeds for the OPC process based on the selected archived post-OPC design package;

revising at least some default coefficients based on the one or more seeds;

performing the OPC process on the subject pre-OPC design package according to the revised coefficients;

wherein at least one of the making, selecting, generating, revising and performing is executed by a processor of the computer; and

performing at least one of the following including:

making one or more lithographic exposures based on a seeded post-OPC design package resulting from having performed the OPC process on the subject pre-OPC design package according to the one or more seeds;

fabricating, based on the seeded post-OPC design package, one or more semiconductor masks; or

fabricating, based on the seeded post-OPC design package, at least one component in a layer of a semiconductor integrated circuit.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the OPC database includes:

the archived post-OPC design packages of integrated circuits (ICs), each post OPC-design package including at least one cell-based representation of a post-OPC layout-layer;

the archived post-OPC design-signatures corresponding to the archived post-OPC design packages;

archived pre-OPC design-signatures of pre-OPC design packages of ICs corresponding to the archived post-OPC design-signatures; and

data structures linking the archived post-OPC design packages and the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signatures; and

data structures linking the archived post-OPC design-signatures and corresponding archived pre-OPC design-signatures.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the receiving a subject pre-OPC design-signature includes:

receiving, at the input device of a computer, the subject pre-OPC design package including at least one cell-based representation of a pre-OPC layout-layer; and

generating, by the processor of the computer, the subject pre-OPC design-signature based on the subject pre-OPC design package.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein:

the OPC database includes data structures linking the archived post-OPC design-signatures and corresponding ones of the archived post-OPC design packages; and

the selecting includes:

indexing, by the processor, the selected archived post-OPC design-signature into the OPC database and thereby retrieving one of the archived post-OPC design packages corresponding to the selected archived post-OPC design-signature as the selected post-OPC design package.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein:

the making comparisons includes:

looking for an identical match between the subject pre-OPC design-signature and one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures; and

the selecting includes:

choosing, if an identical match is found, the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature to be the selected one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein:

the making comparisons includes:

applying, for each of the archived post-OPC design-signatures, a closeness function to the subject pre-OPC design-signature and the post-OPC design-signature to obtain a corresponding closeness value; and

the selecting includes:

sorting the closeness values to find a closest one thereof and thereby the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature; and

choosing the closest-value-corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature to be the selected one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein:

the closeness function is a string metric such that the closeness value is a string-distance;

the making comparisons includes:

applying, for each of the archived post-OPC design-signatures, the string metric to the subject pre-OPC design-signature and the post-OPC design-signature to obtain the corresponding string-distance; and

the selecting includes:

sorting the string-distances to find a shortest one thereof and thereby the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature; and

choosing the shortest string-distance-corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature to be the selected one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein:

the at least one cell-based representation of a post-OPC layout-layer is a hierarchy of cells in which:

a cell including no other cells is a basic layout element (BLE);

a first cell including one or more BLEs and/or one or more second cells is a nestor cell such the one or more BLEs included therein are nestee BLEs and/or the one or more second cells included therein are nestee cells;

an instance of a nestor cell can include one or more instances of a nestor cell;

a BLE that is not a nestee BLE is an independent cell;

a nestor cell that is not a nestee BLE is an independent cell; and

a post-OPC layout-layer is a hierarchical collection of BLEs;

each BLE is represented by one or more segments;

each segment is associated with a model-OPC bias value; and

the generating one or more seeds for the OPC process includes:

setting, for each BLE in the post-OPC layout-layer, the model-OPC bias value for each of the one or more segments in the BLE as corresponding one or more seeds for the OPC process based on the selected archived post-OPC design package.

18. A system for seeding execution of an optical proximity correction (OPC) process, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs;

wherein the at least one memory, the computer program code and the at least one processor are configured to cause the system to:

receive, at an input device of a computer, a subject pre-OPC design-signature for a subject pre-OPC design package;

select, by the processor and via interaction with an OPC database operatively connected to the computer, one amongst archived post-OPC design packages based on relatedness between the subject pre-OPC design-signature and archived post-OPC design-signatures corresponding to the archived post-OPC design packages, and thereby retrieving the selected archived post-OPC design package;

generate one or more seeds for the OPC process based on the selected archived post-OPC design package;

revise at least some default coefficients based on the one or more seeds; and

perform the OPC process on the subject pre-OPC design package according to the revised coefficients; and

at least one of the following including:

a first facility to make one or more lithographic exposures based on a seeded post-OPC design package resulting from having performed the OPC process on the subject pre-OPC design package according to the one or more seeds;

a second facility to fabricate, based on the seeded post-OPC design package, one or more semiconductor masks; or

a third facility to fabricate, based on the seeded post-OPC design package, at least one component in a layer of a semiconductor integrated circuit.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein regarding the selection, the at least one memory, the computer program code and the at least one processor are further configured to cause the system to:

make comparisons between the subject pre-OPC design-signature and the archived post-OPC design-signatures;

select one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures based on the comparisons; and

index the selected archived post-OPC design-signature into the OPC database and thereby retrieve the corresponding archived post-OPC design package as the selected post-OPC design package.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein:

regarding the comparison, the at least one memory, the computer program code and the at least one processor are further configured to cause the system to:

apply, for each of the archived post-OPC design-signatures, a closeness function to the subject pre-OPC design-signature and the post-OPC design-signature to obtain a corresponding closeness value; and

regarding the selection, the at least one memory, the computer program code and the at least one processor are further configured to cause the system to:

sort the closeness values to find a closest one thereof and thereby the corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature; and

choose the closest-value-corresponding archived post-OPC design-signature to be the selected one of the archived post-OPC design-signatures.