Advanced computational lithography based on information theory

As the integration circuit manufacturing enters the advanced technology nodes, computational lithography encounters a big challenge in breaking through the limitation of lithography image fidelity. This work introduces an information theoretical method to explore the limit of image fidelity for advanced computational lithography. An information channel model is built up to depict the information transfer between the mask and print image, and the extension to include the characteristics of extreme ultraviolet lithography imaging model is discussed. Then, the methods to calculate of optimal information transfer for advanced computational lithography is briefly introduced, and the theoretical limit of image fidelity is derived. The proposed method could also be applied to improve the solutions of traditional computational lithography techniques.