SRAF placement and sizing using inverse lithography technology

The use of sub-resolution assist features (SRAFs) is a necessary and effective technique to mitigate the proximity effects resulting from low-k1 imaging with aggressive illumination schemes. This paper investigates the application of one implementation of Inverse Lithography Technology (ILT) to determine optimized SRAF placement and size. In contrast to traditional rule-based methods in which SRAF placement and size are typically predetermined and frozen in place, unmodified during OPC, ILT allows for the simultaneous placement and sizing of SRAFs during target inversion to maximize image quality while also maintaining margin against sidelobe printing. Furthermore, ILT enables SRAF placement for random as well as periodic patterns. In this paper, SRAF placement using this approach is studied through simulations. The computed mask and simulation results are shown to illustrate effectiveness of ILT-generated SRAF features.