EasyMRC: Efficient Mask Rule Checking via Representative Edge Sampling

The photolithography process is getting more sophisticated with technology node scaling down and VLSI designs becoming complex. As photomask patterns get finer, mask rule checks (MRCs) are inevitable to avoid discrepancies in the layout and to ensure manufacturability. This paper introduces an efficient mask rule checking approach that utilizes a representative edge sampling scheme. The representative edge sampling scheme selects a subset of edges and points of each polygon that capture its contour, meanwhile greatly reducing the number of edges involved in actual checking. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves significant speedup compared with the state-of-the-art academic tool.