VCR: Simultaneous via-template and cut-template-aware routing for directed self-assembly technology

The directed self-assembly (DSA) technology for next-generation lithography has been shown its great potential for fabricating highly dense via patterns and cut masks in the sub-5 nm technology node and beyond. However, DSA via and cut optimizations were performed independently, which may induce infeasible via and cut templates and spacing violations. It is thus desirable to develop a novel routing system to better address the co-optimization challenges for DSA via and cut templates. In this paper, we propose the first simultaneous DSA via- and cut-template-aware routing system, named VCR, to practically consider both via and cut templates during routing and post-routing based on a two-pass, bottom-up multilevel routing framework. Experimental results show that VCR can effectively reduce via- and cut-template spacing violations.