Design technology co-optimization for N14 Metal1 layer

Design and technology co-optimization (DTCO) is a new technology method, which takes the manufacturing process limitations, mainly lithography, into account during the early design stage. This paper demonstrates a DTCO workflow which includes layout generation, pattern analysis, hotspot library establishment and design rule optimization mainly. And the paper also gives an example about the method to optimize the design rule related to SADP decomposition. The DTCO workflow can generate friendly layout and find the hotspot patterns in order to avoid the unfriendly design in the advance work and make sure that the layout can be manufactured by the current process level. The DTCO workflow proposed in this paper is an efficient solution for refining the design rules for 14/10 nm tech node Metal1 layer.