Simultaneous EUV flare- and CMP-aware placement

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is one of the most promising next-generation lithography technologies, while chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is the key planarization process for improving chip surface topography. The two techniques are highly related to layout pattern distribution and require different (even conflicting) distributions for EUV flare and CMP variation optimization to achieve better yields. Placement is a critical stage for controlling layout pattern distribution. In this paper, we propose the first work of simultaneous EUV flare-and CMP-aware placement to address the conflicting pattern distribution requirements with the two techniques. We present a sigmoid distribution model to reduce EUV flare effects and a metal-aware pin model to improve metal distribution. The two models are incorporated into a non-linear analytical optimization framework to achieve desired placement solutions. Experimental results show the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed method.