Layout Compression for Electron-Beam Direct-Write Lithography Systems

目的：电子束直写微光刻系统利用电子束阵列在光刻胶涂层晶圆上刻写掩模图像。它们对于下一代光刻技术具有吸引力，因为它们能够生产比传统光刻系统更小的电路，而传统光刻系统需要昂贵的物理掩模，但它们目前的缺点是比物理掩模光刻系统慢得多。本课题的目的是为电子束直写光刻系统中巨大的电控掩模图像开发专门设计的数据压缩算法，以加快和改进这类系统。布局图像压缩问题不同于大多数针对“自然”图像的图像压缩工作，因为存在(1)对解码器的严格限制，(2)模式提取的复杂性，以及(3)布局图像中需要利用的特殊结构。智力优势：智力优势是开发电路布局图像压缩算法和实现，非常适合不断发展的电子束直写光刻系统的要求，包括现有的有前途的大规模并行像素投影无掩模光刻系统，它使用各种写入策略。更广泛的影响：微电子电路直接影响许多信息技术系统的速度和效率，包括信号和媒体处理、航空航天和国防。该项目的变革性质在于，它解决了数据传输的关键问题，该问题目前限制了电子束直写光刻系统的可行性，从而可能深刻影响集成电路的未来制造。

Objective: Electron-Beam Direct-Write microlithography systems use an array of electron beams to write a mask image on a photo-resist coated wafer. They are attractive for Next-Generation Lithography because they are able to produce circuits with much smaller features than conventional hotolithography systems which need expensive physical masks, but they currently have the disadvantage of being much slower than physical mask lithography systems. The objective of this project is to develop specially designed data compression algorithms for the huge electronically controlled mask images of electron-beam direct-write lithography systems in order to speed up and improve such systems. The problem of layout image compression differs from the majority of work on image compression, which targets "natural" images, because there are (1) severe constraints on the decoder, (2) complications in the extraction of patterns, and (3) special structures within layout images to be exploited.Intellectual merit: The intellectual merit is the development of circuit layout image compression algorithms and implementations which are wellsuited to the requirements of evolving electron-beam direct-write lithography systems including existing promising massively parallel pixel projection maskless lithography systems which use various writing strategies.Broader impacts: Microelectronic circuits directly impact the speed and efficiency of many information technology systems including signal and media processing, aerospace, and defense. The transformative nature of the project is that it addresses the critical problem of data delivery which currently limits the viability of electron-beam direct-write lithography systems and canthereby profoundly affect the future manufacturing of integrated circuits.