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
This Non-Final office is a response to the papers filed on 09/27/2023.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 9, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lippincott (Pub. No. 2005/0273733 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 9, and 14, Lippincott discloses:
A method, executed by at least one processor of a computer (see Fig. and Fig. 6), comprising:
receiving a layout design, the layout design being segmented into a plurality of points (see par [0006-0007], an optical and process correction (OPC) tool and other system constraints that are preventing a better OPC correction from being made for a feature in an IC layout…., an OPC tool assigns a priority to individual edge segments of a feature to be OPC corrected such that movement of a less important edge ….[wherein edges are points]), the plurality of points comprising at least one more important point and at least one less important point (see par [0006-0007], an optical and process correction (OPC) tool and other system constraints that are preventing a better OPC correction from being made for a feature in an IC layout…., an OPC tool assigns a priority to individual edge segments of a feature to be OPC corrected such that movement of a less important edge ….);
performing a plurality of optical proximity correction iterations on the plurality of points to generate a modified layout design (see par [0025-0027], the OPC corrections are determined with an iterative process where edges are moved outward or inward until an acceptable solution is found…), each of the plurality of optical proximity correction iterations comprising:
performing simulation to determine edge placement errors (EPE) for the plurality of points (see par [0022-0027], the EPE used for assigning priorities may be dynamic in accordance with the OPC corrections made to the edge segments…. To improve the edge placement error (EPE) of those edge segments…);
determining at least one intermediate adjustment value for the at least one less important point in order to reduce the EPE for the at least one more important point (see par [0026-0027], a lower priority edge may be assigned a position during one iteration that prevents an OPC correction for a more important edge before being moved in another iteration to allow the better OPC correction for the higher priority edge…., [wherein assigned a position for a lower priority edge which is the intermediate adjustment value have been determined], the OPC correction of a lower priority edges are adjusted to permit the desired OPC adjustment of a higher priority edge…..); and
generating, based on the at least one intermediate edge adjustment value (see par [0026-0027], a lower priority edge may be assigned a position during one iteration that prevents an OPC correction for a more important edge before being moved in another iteration to allow the better OPC correction for the higher priority edge…., [wherein assigned a position for a lower priority edge which is the intermediate adjustment value have been generated], the OPC correction of a lower priority edges are adjusted to permit the desired OPC adjustment of a higher priority edge…..), a modified layout design for the plurality of points for a next optical proximity correction iteration in the plurality of optical proximity correction iterations (see par [0026-0027], a lower priority edge may be assigned a position during one iteration that prevents an OPC correction for a more important edge before being moved in another iteration to allow the better OPC correction for the higher priority edge…., the OPC correction of a lower priority edges are adjusted to permit the desired OPC adjustment of a higher priority edge….); and
generating a final modified layout design, which is to be used for photomask manufacture, based on the modified layout design (see par [0015], computer system 10 receives a number of manufacturing rules 16 that are either user-defined or depend on the photolithographic process used to create the IC….); and
storing information of the final modified layout design (see Fig. 1, computer is used to store the final modified layout design, see par [0010]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8, 10-13, and 15-20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation as in the claims.
Conclusion
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/BRIAN NGO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2851
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