Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
2. This Office Action responds to the Application filed on 5/2/2023 and IDS filed on 11/20/2023, 5/7/2024, and 3/6/2026.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
4. Claim(s) 1, 2, 6-9, 11, 12, and 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsu et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2022/0335197 A1) in view of Huang (“Optical Proximity Correction (OPC)-Friendly Maze Routing”, Li-Da Huang, Martin D. F. Wong, DAC 2004).
As per claim 1, Hsu discloses:
For a router that defines a plurality of routes for a plurality of nets in an integrated circuit (IC) design layout, a method comprising:
performing a first routing operation to define a first set of one or more routes for a first set of one or more nets (See Figure 1, i.e. routing 26 & Para [0037], i.e. tool 26 produces physical interconnections between the cells or the geometric shapes in the placement layout provided by the placement tool);
supplying the first set of routes to a machine-trained network (MTN) to identify, for at least one route in the set of route (See Para [0047]-[0050], i.e. artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) techniques may be employed to identify the severity of DRC violations to predict whether a DRC violation is an HTF DRC violation –[prior art use machine learning in order to determine DRC violation in the routing is considered as the supplying as cited above])
a cost that quantifies complexity of a subsequent operation that is performed to make masks used to produce an IC from the design layout that includes the plurality of routes defined by the router (See Para [0042]-[0044], i.e. The DRC violations 204 may be classified into three categories…RC violations may be classified into different fix difficulty levels to facilitate the post-routing congestion optimization process carried out by the post-routing congestion optimization platform 30. Based on physical verification error(s) 302, DRC violations are classified into four fix difficulty levels, namely L1, L2, L3, and L4, See Para [0047]-[0049], i.e. classification engine 32 is configured to classify DRC violations into different fix difficulty levels (i.e., L1, L2, L3, and L4) to facilitate the post-routing congestion optimization process)
using the cost to discard one or more routes in the first set of routes (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated at step –[prior art based on the cost, adjust the routing by moving wire and/or detour wiring is considered as the discard as cited above, as adjusting wiring, discard the wiring previously routed]); and
performing a second routing operation to define a new route for any net that had a route discarded from the first set of routes (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated at step –[prior art adjust routing based on the cost/complexity determined, is considered as the second routing operation as cited above]).
Hsu does not teach: an OPC (Optical Proximity Correction) cost that quantifies complexity of a subsequent OPC operation that is performed to make masks used to produce an IC from the design layout that includes the plurality of routes defined by the router and routing based on OPC cost.
However, Huang teach: an OPC (Optical Proximity Correction) cost that quantifies complexity of a subsequent OPC operation that is performed to make masks used to produce an IC from the design layout that includes the plurality of routes defined by the router and routing based on OPC cost (See Section I, Introduction, See section 3. OPC COST CALCULATION AND OPC FRIENDLY MAZE ROUTING ALGORITHM – See Section 3.2, OPC cost Calculation, i.e. cost of the routing edge…energy of interference, See Section 3.3 OPC-Friendly Maze Routing Algorithm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the
art at the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teaching of Huang into
the teaching of Hsu because it would reduce proximity correction correction to line width
and length variations in technologies nodes beyond 130nm (See Section I,
Introduction).
As per claim 2, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 1 as discloses above wherein Huang also discloses wherein the OPC cost quantifies complexity of a set of structures that an OPC operation has to have in the set of masks to produce the IC to have a set of interconnects that implements the first set of routes (See Section I, Introduction, See section 3. OPC COST CALCULATION AND OPC FRIENDLY MAZE ROUTING ALGORITHM – See Section 3.2, OPC cost Calculation, i.e. cost of the routing edge…energy of interference, See Section 3.3 OPC-Friendly Maze Routing Algorithm).
As per claim 6, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 1 as discloses above wherein Huang also discloses wherein using the OPC cost comprises using the OPC cost in a constrained optimization process that searches for an optimal solution for a constrained optimization equation (See Section I, Introduction, See section 3. OPC COST CALCULATION AND OPC FRIENDLY MAZE ROUTING ALGORITHM – See Section 3.2, OPC cost Calculation, i.e. cost of the routing edge…energy of interference, See Section 3.3 OPC-Friendly Maze Routing Algorithm).
As per claim 7, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 6 as discloses above wherein Huang also discloses wherein in addition to the OPC cost, the constrained optimization equation accounts for a wirelength cost of the first set of routes (See Section 2. , i.e. All three nets are routed with minimum lengths).
As per claim 8, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 7 as discloses above wherein Hsu also discloses wherein the first set of routes consists of a first route for a first net, and the performing the first routing operation, supplying, using and performing the second routing operation are performed to identify a route for the first net (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated at step).
As per claim 9, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 7 as discloses above wherein Hsu also discloses wherein the first set of routes comprises at least two routes for at least two nets, and the performing the first routing operation, supplying, using and performing the second routing operation are performed as part of a rip-up-and-reroute operation that considers two or more routes defined for two or more nets to determine whether one or more nets need to have their routes discarded from the first set and new routes defined for them in the second set (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated ).
As per claim 11, Hsu discloses:
A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit of a router that defines a plurality of routes for a plurality of nets in an integrated circuit (IC) design layout, the program comprising sets of instructions (See Figure 14, i.e. processor and memory) for:
performing a first routing operation to define a first set of one or more routes for a first set of one or more nets (See Figure 1, i.e. routing 26 & Para [0037], i.e. tool 26 produces physical interconnections between the cells or the geometric shapes in the placement layout provided by the placement tool);
supplying the first set of routes to a machine-trained network (MTN) to identify, for at least one route in the set of route (See Para [0047]-[0050], i.e. artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) techniques may be employed to identify the severity of DRC violations to predict whether a DRC violation is an HTF DRC violation –[prior art use machine learning in order to determine DRC violation in the routing is considered as the supplying as cited above])
, an cost that quantifies complexity of a subsequent operation that is performed to make masks used to produce an IC from the design layout that includes the plurality of routes defined by the router (See Para [0042]-[0044], i.e. The DRC violations 204 may be classified into three categories…RC violations may be classified into different fix difficulty levels to facilitate the post-routing congestion optimization process carried out by the post-routing congestion optimization platform 30. Based on physical verification error(s) 302, DRC violations are classified into four fix difficulty levels, namely L1, L2, L3, and L4, See Para [0047]-[0049], i.e. classification engine 32 is configured to classify DRC violations into different fix difficulty levels (i.e., L1, L2, L3, and L4) to facilitate the post-routing congestion optimization process);
using the cost to discard one or more routes in the first set of routes (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated at step –[prior art based on the cost, adjust the routing by moving wire and/or detour wiring is considered as the discard as cited above, as adjusting wiring, discard the wiring previously routed]); and
performing a second routing operation to define a new route for any net that had a route discarded from the first set of routes (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated at step –[prior art adjust routing based on the cost/complexity determined, is considered as the second routing operation as cited above]).
Hsu does not teach: an OPC (Optical Proximity Correction) cost that quantifies complexity of a subsequent OPC operation that is performed to make masks used to produce an IC from the design layout that includes the plurality of routes defined by the router and routing based on OPC cost.
However, Huang teach: an OPC (Optical Proximity Correction) cost that quantifies complexity of a subsequent OPC operation that is performed to make masks used to produce an IC from the design layout that includes the plurality of routes defined by the router and routing based on OPC cost (See Section I, Introduction, See section 3. OPC COST CALCULATION AND OPC FRIENDLY MAZE ROUTING ALGORITHM – See Section 3.2, OPC cost Calculation, i.e. cost of the routing edge…energy of interference, See Section 3.3 OPC-Friendly Maze Routing Algorithm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the
art at the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teaching of Huang into
the teaching of Hsu because it would reduce proximity correction correction to line width
and length variations in technologies nodes beyond 130nm (See Section I,
Introduction).
As per claim 12, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 11 as discloses above wherein Huang also discloses wherein the OPC cost quantifies complexity of a set of structures that an OPC operation has to have in the set of masks to produce the IC to have a set of interconnects that implements the first set of routes (See Section I, Introduction, See section 3. OPC COST CALCULATION AND OPC FRIENDLY MAZE ROUTING ALGORITHM – See Section 3.2, OPC cost Calculation, i.e. cost of the routing edge…energy of interference, See Section 3.3 OPC-Friendly Maze Routing Algorithm).
As per claim 16, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 11 as discloses above wherein Huang also discloses wherein using the OPC cost comprises using the OPC cost in a constrained optimization process that searches for an optimal solution for a constrained optimization equation (See Section I, Introduction, See section 3. OPC COST CALCULATION AND OPC FRIENDLY MAZE ROUTING ALGORITHM – See Section 3.2, OPC cost Calculation, i.e. cost of the routing edge…energy of interference, See Section 3.3 OPC-Friendly Maze Routing Algorithm).
As per claim 17, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 16 as discloses above wherein Huang also discloses wherein in addition to the OPC cost, the constrained optimization equation accounts for a wirelength cost of the first set of routes (See Section 2. , i.e. All three nets are routed with minimum lengths).
As per claim 18, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 17 as discloses above wherein Hsu also discloses wherein the first set of routes consists of a first route for a first net, and the sets of instructions for performing the first routing operation, supplying, using and performing the second routing operation are performed to identify a route for the first net (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated at step).
As per claim 19, Hsu and Huang discloses all of the features of claim 17 as discloses above wherein Huang also discloses wherein the first set of routes comprises at least two routes for at least two nets, and the sets of instructions for performing the first routing operation, supplying, using and performing the second routing operation are performed as part of a rip-up-and-reroute operation that considers two or more routes defined for two or more nets to determine whether one or more nets need to have their routes discarded from the first set and new routes defined for them in the second set (See Para [0050]-[0052], i.e. elect an optimization plan 37 to optimize the post-routing…he wire movement engine 42 are utilized according to the optimization plan 37, See Para [0056], i.e. the wire movement 412 may be the optimization plan 37 when the cell relocation 410 or the anchor buffering 408 alone still cannot fix the cluster DRC violations 204c, See Para [0058]-[0068], Para [0071]-[0072], i.e. detour path 912 is generated).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 3-5, 10, 13-15, and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
6. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art does not teach the limitations of claims 3-5, 10, 13-15, and/or 20.
Conclusion
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NHA T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1405. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00AM-5:00PM.
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/NHA T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2851