Shrinkage of VLSI feature size and use of advanced Reticle Enhancement Technologies (RET) in manufacturing such as OPC and PSM have dramatically pushed up cost of mask. For example of a 130nm or 90nm mask set, the mask cost can easily reach one or two million US dollars. Shuttle mask is an effective method to share the mask cost by putting different chips on the same mask. Shuttle mask floorpla...

The beauty of the laryngeal mask is that it forms an air tight seal enclosing the larynx rather than plugging the pharynx, and avoid airway obstruction in the oropharynx. The goal of its development was to create an intermediate form of airway management face mask and endotracheal tube. Indication for its use includes any procedure that would normally involve the use of a face mask. The larynge...

Machine learning is a powerful computer science technique that can derive knowledge from big data and make predictions/decisions. Since nanometer integrated circuits (IC) and manufacturing have extremely high complexity and gigantic data, there is great opportunity to apply and adapt various machine learning techniques in IC physical design and verification. This paper will first give an introd...

This paper reports an automatic method for synthesizing MEMS mask-layouts. This method incorporates a forward simulation of fabrication into a general evolutionary algorithm loop as shown in Figure 1. An initial random population of mask-layouts is generated. The fabrication of each layout is simulated through a digital process simulator to produce a 3D fabricated shape, which is compared to a ...

High quality single Josephson junctions and junction arrays with 10 junctions in series have been fabricated using masked proton beam irradiation damage technology. Monte Carlo simulation of the irradiation damage profile underneath the metal mask has been carried out systematically to guide the metal mask structure design. A high resolution and high aspect ratio metal mask opening was fabricat...

This paper presents a study and the implementation of a optical simulation tool based on wavelets. After this initial study it will be possible to implement resolution enhancement techniques (RET) such as optical proximity correction (OPC) and double patterning. Optical lithography simulation is an essential step to a Design for Manufacturability (DFM) flow. Simulation is used in mask printabil...

Defect avoidance methods are likely to play a key role in overcoming the challenge of mask blank defects in EUV lithography. In this work, we propose a novel EUV mask defect avoidance method. It is the first approach that allows exploring all the degrees of freedom available for defect avoidance (pattern shift, rotation and mask floorplanning). We model the defect avoidance problem as a global,...