Petersen Advanced Lithography

OPC Design and Testing

Here's how OPC design and testing works with PAL

1. You complete a comprehensive survey that identifies critical aspects of your lithography process and what you envision as your desired results. You also provide PAL with an original GSDII file for each process layer.
2. Drawing on more than twenty years of microlithography experience, PAL then audits the process to determine its potential to achieve the desired results.
3. If the audit comes back fine, PAL creates a project plan and devises an acceptable project schedule.  If, however, the audit shows that the process spec is probably unachievable, we’ll tell you and explain why.
4. PAL then uses the client's fab data to fine-tune lithography models in order to optimize the accuracy of the prediction.
5. PAL then uses the most advanced lithography simulation tools available to perform initial simulations, including KLA- Tencor's PROLITH, ProMAX and ProDATA, and in the near future, EMF3.
6. PAL identifies critical areas for OPC--which aspects of the design will probably need adjustment, and which are likely to meet process specifications without correction.
7. PAL designs OPC solutions and integrates them into a new mask file, using techniques such as serifs, hammerheads, sub-resolution assist features and the like, while considering mask making limitations and using the simplest, least expensive mask designs possible.
8. PAL tests the corrected mask files for each layer using the optimized simulation parameters.  If the results from the corrected masks do not meet the client’s specifications, the masks are refined and re-tested until the specifications are met.  When each layer has been redesigined, PAL performs an overlay test to test sample imaging system aberrations.
9. PAL delivers the corrected GDSII mask files to client or designated mask maker and provides documentation of testing process and appropriate simulation data.