Efficient optical proximity correction based on semi-implicit additive operator splitting.

Area of Science:

• Semiconductor Manufacturing
• Computational Lithography
• Image Processing

Background:

• Inverse lithography techniques (ILT) are crucial for correcting optical distortions in semiconductor manufacturing.
• Current iterative ILT optimization is inefficient due to small time steps in explicit time discretization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a more efficient mask synthesis method for ILT.
• To enable stable computation with larger time steps, overcoming the limitations of explicit schemes.

Main Methods:

• A semi-implicit time discretization scheme was applied to mask synthesis.
• Additive operator splitting (AOS) was used for one-dimensional updates.
• The Thomas algorithm efficiently solved the resulting tridiagonal linear equations.

Main Results:

• The semi-implicit approach allows for stable computation with significantly larger time steps.
• Mask synthesis efficiency is substantially improved compared to explicit methods.
• Simulation results demonstrate superior convergence performance.

Conclusions:

• The proposed semi-implicit method enhances the efficiency and stability of mask synthesis in ILT.
• This approach offers a practical solution for faster and more effective semiconductor lithography.
• The use of AOS and the Thomas algorithm provides an efficient computational framework.