Nikon and Synopsys Team Up for Advanced DFM Solutions
Aaron Hand, Managing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 9/21/2006
Timed in conjunction with this week’s Photomask Technology conference, EDA company Synopsys Inc. and lithography tool supplier Nikon Corp. announced their collaboration on advanced lithography software models and DFM-enabled lithography manufacturing solutions for 45 nm and below.
Nikon and Synopsys have been working together on and off for years, although this particular partnership has been going on for less than a year, according to Tracy Weed, director of manufacturing enabling products at Synopsys. The collaboration brings together EDA design and optical lithography imaging system expertise to focus on building next-generation “manufacturing-aware” optical proximity correction (OPC) and resolution enhancement technique (RET) lithography simulation models.
At 45 nm and below, critical dimension (CD) control will be at the single-nanometer levels. New lithography simulation and OPC/RET models need to be developed to improve CD performance to reach those performance levels, with a fast turnaround time as well. To do that, models must be characterized beyond today’s typical input parameters such as lithography dose, defocus, light source type and lens parameters. New simulation and modeling inputs must include immersion effects, polarization impacts, global and local flare, wavefront aberrations, and other factors that may impact CD performance.
Early work in the Nikon-Synopsys partnership will focus on the development and optimization of new advanced lithography simulation models, which will include the specific proprietary equipment parameters from Nikon’s lithography systems. Although EDA competitor Cadence has long had a similar arrangement with litho toolmaker ASML, Weed argued that the transfer of the specific information enabled by the latest partnership is unique. “I believe the detail that we’re transferring is not done,” he said. Chris Sparkes, senior director of technology at Nikon Precision Inc., agreed, emphasizing the level of details provided about the Nikon scanners.
The partnership is a move in the right direction, Weed said, providing a closer linking of design and manufacturing, and offering customers a “quantifiable means of improving over what’s available today.” The two companies have been validating the new offerings with key customers, and they are very excited about the progress that they’ve seen, Weed said. The solutions offered provide benefits in reduced time to silicon and improved manufacturing yields, Sparkes added, with the information provided on scanner parameters leading to more precise simulation models.
Synopsys also announced last month its acquisition of Sigma-C, a German simulation tool provider. Although the latest hookup will use what it can from the Sigma-C product line (and in fact Nikon has been using Sigma-C’s Solid E software for years), that is not a key factor in the Nikon-Synopsys collaboration, according to Weed.
Future work in the partnership will focus on the development and deployment of advanced DFM manufacturing in-fab solutions for Nikon lithography systems. Longer-term plans go beyond just OPC, Weed said. “This is really just the beginning.” The team hopes to submit more details about their joint work in a paper at the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference next February.
