Distributed proximity effect correction on a network of workstations

Abstract

Proximity effect caused by electron scattering imposes a severe limitation on the ultimate resolution attainable with E-beam lithography. In most of the correction schemes proposed so far, the correction time is dependent on the number of circuit primitives. Correction of realistic circuit patterns containing a large number of primitives is severely limited due to the time-consuming nature of proximity effect correction and the computer memory required on a workstation. This problem continues to pose more and more challenges as the circuit size and density continue to increase. It is proposed to perform proximity effect correction in a distributed manner using a network of workstations as an efficient solution.