Creation and Fixing of Lithography Hotspots with Synopsys Tools

Abstract: At advanced process nodes, pattern matching techniques have been used in the detection of lithography hotspots, which can affect yields of manufactured integrated circuits. Although commercial pattern matching and in-design hotspot fixing tools have been developed, engineers still need to verify that specific hotspot patterns in routed designs can indeed be detected or even repaired by software tools. Therefore, there is the need to create test cases with which targeted hotspot patterns can be generated in routed layouts by using an APR (automatic placement and routing) tool. In this paper, we propose a methodology of creating hotspot patterns in the routing space by using Synopsys tools. Also, methods for repairing hotspots during the physical design phase are presented. With the use of the proposed hotspot creation methodology, we can generate routed designs containing targeted hotspot patterns. As a result, the effectiveness of hotspot detection rules, hotspot fixing guidance rules, and relevant software tool functions can be verified.