LSI Design Flow for Shot Reduction of Character Projection Electron Beam Direct Writing Using Combined Cell Stencil

Abstract

We propose a shot reduction technique of character projection (CP) Electron Beam Direct Writing (EBDW) using combined cell stencil (CCS) or the advanced process technology. CP EBDW is expected both to reduce mask costs and to realize quick turn around time. One of major issue of the conventional CP EBDW, however, is a throughput of lithography. The throughput is determined by numbers of shots, which are proportional to numbers of cell instances in LSIs. The conventional shot reduction techniques focus on optimization of cell stencil extraction, without any modifications on designed LSI mask patterns. The proposed technique employs the proposed combined cell stencil, with proposed modified design flow, for further shot reduction. We demonstrate 22.4% shot reduction within 4.3% area increase for a microprocessor and 28.6% shot reduction for IWLS benchmarks compared with the conventional technique.