Mask rule check using priority information of mask patterns

Association of Super-Advanced Electronics Technologies (ASET) has started a project called "Mask Design, Drawing and Inspection Technology (MaskD2I)" with the sponsorship from The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) since 2006. SIINT has joined the MaskD2I project and we have been developing MRC software considering DFM information for more effective data verification. By converting design level information called as "Design Intent" to the priority information of mask manufacturing data called as "Mask Data Rank (MDR)", the MRC process based on the importance of reticle patterns is possible. Our main purpose is to build a novel data checking flow with the priority information of mask patterns extracted from the design intent. In this paper, we address the effectiveness of MRC technologies which have been widely applied in many mask data fields. Then we present the current status of the new MRC development, its experimental results so far and the future outlook using further Design Aware Manufacturing (DAM) information.