Optimization for Multiple Patterning Lithography with cutting process and beyond

Multiple Patterning Lithography (MPL) is indispensable for producing sub-22nm devices. Recently, multiple patterning with cutting (MPC) was proposed. For example, in triple patterning with cutting (LELECUT), the first two masks are used to do double patterning, whereas the third mask is used to cut off the unwanted parts. In this paper, we will systematically study the problem of cut candidate generation, and propose a flow to optimally minimize the manufacturing cost for standard cell based design with MPC. We will further extend the optimization flow to handle multiple patterning with e-beam cuts. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.