Process characteristics and layout decomposition of self-aligned sextuple patterning

Self-aligned sextuple patterning (SASP) is a promising technique to scale down the half pitch of IC features to sub- 10nm region. In this paper, the process characteristics and decomposition methods of both positive-tone (pSASP) and negative-tone SASP (nSASP) techniques are discussed, and a variety of decomposition rules are studied. By using a node-grouping method, nSASP layout conflicting graph can be significantly simplified. Graph searching and coloring algorithm is developed for feature/color assignment. We demonstrate that by generating assisting mandrels, nSASP layout decomposition can be degenerated into an nSADP decomposition problem. The proposed decomposition algorithm is successfully verified with several commonly used 2-D layout examples.

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