But it’s not just the foundry creating these patterns. Design companies are also using pattern matching in their own pre-production and test chip analysis programs to identify problematic patterns ...

Figure 1. In sub-wavelength lithography, design rule compliance no longer guarantees yield. (Image courtesy of Luigi Capodieci, Ph.D., SPIE Microlithography 2006) Second, pattern matching’s true power ...

Pattern matching is best known for its use in detecting lithographic hotspots, but it’s also widely used across all physical verification flows, and has expanded into design-for-manufacturing ...