Laurence W. Grodd

OASIS-based data preparation flows: progress report on containing data size explosion

The ever-increasing complexity of integrated circuits and their enabling process technology has accelerated the increase in data volume of post-RET data which is input to the photomask manufacturing industry. OASIS - the new stream format that has been developed by a working group under the sponsorship of the SEMI Data Path Task Force enables the representation of IC layout data in a much more compact form than GDSII and facilitates the incorporation of hierarchical data into the mask-making infrastructure. OASIS achieves on average a >10x reduction in file size compared to GDSII files and structures the data in a way, which allows a straightforward translation from a hierarchical format to the required flat mask perspective. Owing to the efficiency in representing the data, OASIS files are smaller than commonly used flat exchange formats - like MEBES, thus enabling an efficient hierarchical data flow both from the processing as well as the file handling prospective. The implementation of OASIS into post-tapeout data flows will be discussed and experimental results on OASIS-based data preparation flows will be shown.

Parallel processing approaches in RET and MDP: new hybrid multithreading and distributed technology for optimum throughput in a hierarchical flow

The continuous integration trend in design and broad deployment of resolution enhancement techniques (RET) have a tremendous impact on circuit file size and pattern complexity. Increasing design cycle time has drawn attention to the data manipulation steps that follow the physical layout of the design. The contributions to the total turn-around time for a design are twofold: the time to get the data ready for the hand-off to the mask writer is growing, but also the time it takes to write the mask is heavily influenced by the size and complexity of the data. In order to reduce the time that is required for the application of RET and the export of the data to mask writer formats, massively parallel processing approaches have been described. This paper presents such computing algorithms for the hierarchical implementation of RET and mask data preparation (MDP). We focus on the parallel and flexible deployment of a new hybrid multithreaded and distributed processing scheme in homogeneous and heterogeneous computer networks called MTFlex. We describe the new methodology and discuss corresponding hardware and software configurations. The application of this “MTFlex” computing scheme to different tasks in post-tapeout data preparation is shown in examples.

New stream format: progress report on containing data size explosion

The data volumes of individual files used in the manufacture of modern integrated circuits have become unmanageable using existing data formats specifications. The ITRS roadmap indicates that single layer MEBES files in 2002 reached the 50 GB range, worst case. Under the sponsorship of SEMI, a working group was formed to create a new format for use in describing integrated circuit layouts in a more efficient and extendible manner. This paper is a report on the status and potential benefits the new format can deliver.