Toward Through-Process Layout Quality Metrics

Quality of a layout has the most direct impact in the manufacturability of a design. Traditionally, layout quality is ensured in the first order by design rules, i.e. if a layout is free of design rules violation, it is a good layout. It is assumed such a layout will be fabricated to specification. Moreover, a design rule clean layout also ensures the electrical performance of the circuit it represents. There are other layout quality measures, e.g. random defects yield of a layout is modeled by critical area, systematic defects yield is sometime measured by a weighted score of recommended design rules. All the traditional layout quality measures are computed with drawn layout shapes.