Deep Learning-Driven Simultaneous Layout Decomposition and Mask Optimization

Combining multiple patterning lithography (MPL) and optical proximity correction (OPC) pushes the limit of 193-nm wavelength lithography to go further. Considering that layout decomposition may generate plenty of solutions with diverse printabilities, relying on conventional mask optimization (MO) process to select the best candidate for manufacturing is computationally expensive. Therefore, an accurate and efficient printability estimation is crucial and can significantly accelerate the layout decomposition and MO (LDMO) flow. In this article, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based prediction and integrate it into our new high-performance LDMO framework. The optimization process can be considerably improved as the decomposition quality has been inferred in the early phase. To facilitate the network training and ensure better estimation accuracy, we develop sampling strategies for both layout and decomposition. Moreover, we enhance the layout sampling approach by adopting autoencoder to distance evaluation that promises superior sampling results. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.