Based on Luminescent’s patented Inverse Lithography Technology (ILT) platform, the Luminizer is an integrated hardware and software replacement for optical proximity correction (OPC) technologies used for sub-wavelength lithography resolution enhancement. Results obtained on printed silicon demonstrate that the Luminizer produces significantly better pattern fidelity and lithography process windows than what is possible with state-of-the-art OPC. In addition, the Luminizer substantially reduces mask-design cycle time for 45- and 32-nm integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing.

Despite the emergence of new approaches to overcome lithography-related design constraints, OPC engineers still struggle with the basic challenges of smaller process windows, higher mask costs, and compromised yields at advanced nodes. Even the promise of faster OPC techniques using image-based forward simulation and other new methods fails to solve the inherent accuracy challenges of a process that moves design edges to approximate intended on-wafer results. Furthermore, because OPC is an ad hoc approach, there is no guarantee that if a reticle pattern exists to hit the wafer target, the solution can even be found. OPC is also time-consuming and labor-intensive, requiring extensive script writing and verification, with several mask file respins typically occurring before chipmakers can confidently commit a design to mask and silicon. Moreover, at the 45- and 32-nm nodes, OPC approaches are being stretched beyond their practical limits.

Luminescent’s ILT is the first mask synthesis solution to transition beyond OPC software while fitting seamlessly into existing tape-out flows. It is the only automated resolution enhancement technology (RET) that starts directly with the desired IC pattern on the wafer, explores the entire available optical lithography space by mathematical inversion, and ultimately delivers a mask pattern that generates maximum design fidelity with the broadest possible process window. With its computational speed, the Luminizer is already patterning advanced-node features rendered "extremely difficult-to-print" by OPC techniques. The result: a ground-breaking new-generation RET solution that accelerates lithography yield ramps and reduces time-to-silicon. In addition, the Luminizer enables the use of more-economical 193-nm dry lithography instead of immersion for printing certain 45-nm critical layers and can delay the need for more advanced immersion steppers for 32-nm designs.

Luminescent’s ILT is the industry’s first practical inverse algorithmic approach built to overcome the patterning obstacles at the 45- and 32-nm nodes:

1. Accuracy:ILT enables superior accuracy in four important ways: First, it analyzes the entire image to generate the mask, not just discrete sampling points on the pattern edges. As such, ILT produces optimized mask features that are not locally constrained but are the result of image-quality considerations at locations that are distant by several optical wavelengths. Second, the mask is pre-verified and correct by construction. Third, ILT automatically generates and optimizes assist features during inversion, thus avoiding any special accommodation for assist-feature placement. Finally, ILT enhances accuracy by leveraging state-of-the-art optical and resist models.