beamer release notes -...

© 2019 GenISys GmbH

Release Notes

12/17/2019 6:57 PM

Advancing the Standard in E-Beam Lithography

v5.9.0 Release Notes

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Printed: December 2019 in Munich, Germany

BEAMER Release Notes


3Contents


Table of Contents

I Release Version 6

................................................................................................................................... 61 V5.9

......................................................................................................................................................... 6V5.9.0

................................................................................................................................... 102 V5.8

......................................................................................................................................................... 10V5.8.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 10V5.8.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 11V5.8.0

................................................................................................................................... 153 V5.7

......................................................................................................................................................... 15V5.7.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 15V5.7.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 16V5.7.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 16V5.7.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 17V5.7.0

................................................................................................................................... 204 V5.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 20V5.6.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 20V5.6.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 21V5.6.0

................................................................................................................................... 245 V5.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 24V5.5.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 24V5.5.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 25V5.5.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 25V5.5.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 27V5.5.0

................................................................................................................................... 316 V5.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 31V5.4.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 32V5.4.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 33V5.4.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 34V5.4.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 35V5.4.0

................................................................................................................................... 417 v5.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 41v5.3.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 42v5.3.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 42v5.3.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 42v5.3.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 44v5.3.0

................................................................................................................................... 508 v5.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 50v5.2.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 54v5.2.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 57v5.2.0

................................................................................................................................... 659 v5.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 65v5.1.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 66v5.1.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 67v5.1.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 68v5.1.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 70v5.1.0

................................................................................................................................... 7610 v5.0

......................................................................................................................................................... 76v5.0.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 76v5.0.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 76v5.0.4

BEAMER Release Notes4


......................................................................................................................................................... 79v5.0.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 80v5.0.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 81v5.0.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 82v5.0.0

................................................................................................................................... 9211 v4.8

......................................................................................................................................................... 92v4.8.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 94v4.8.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 95v4.8.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 95v4.8.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 97v4.8.0

................................................................................................................................... 10312 v4.7

......................................................................................................................................................... 103v4.7.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 104v4.7.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 104v4.7.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 104v4.7.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 105v4.7.0

................................................................................................................................... 10713 v4.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 108v4.6.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 108v4.6.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 108v4.6.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 109v4.6.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 111v4.6.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 112v4.6.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 112v4.6.0

................................................................................................................................... 11514 v4.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 115v4.5.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 115v4.5.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 117v4.5.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 117v4.5.0

................................................................................................................................... 12115 v4.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 121v4.4.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 122v4.4.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 125v4.4.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 128v4.4.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 130v4.4.0

................................................................................................................................... 13316 v4.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 133v4.3.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 134v4.3.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 136v4.3.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 136v4.3.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 137v4.3.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 137v4.3.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 138v4.3.0

................................................................................................................................... 14117 v4.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 141v4.2.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 142v4.2.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 143v4.2.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 144v4.2.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 144v4.2.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 146v4.2.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 146v4.2.0

................................................................................................................................... 15118 v4.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 151v4.1.8

......................................................................................................................................................... 152v4.1.7

......................................................................................................................................................... 152v4.1.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 153v4.1.5

5Contents


......................................................................................................................................................... 154v4.1.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 154v4.1.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 158v4.1.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 158v4.1.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 159v4.1.0

................................................................................................................................... 16319 v4.0

......................................................................................................................................................... 163v4.0.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 164v4.0.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 165v4.0.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 166v4.0.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 166v4.0.0

................................................................................................................................... 17020 v3.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 170v3.4.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 170v3.4.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 170v3.4.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 171v3.4.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 171v3.4.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 172v3.4.0

................................................................................................................................... 17521 v3.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 175v3.3.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 175v3.3.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 176v3.3.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 176v3.3.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 178v3.3.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 179v3.3.0

................................................................................................................................... 18122 v3.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 181v3.2.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 181v3.2.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 181v3.2.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 182v3.2.0

................................................................................................................................... 18423 v3.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 184v3.1.7

......................................................................................................................................................... 184v3.1.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 184v3.1.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 184v3.1.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 184v3.1.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 185v3.1.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 186v3.1.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 186v3.1.0

................................................................................................................................... 18824 v3.0

......................................................................................................................................................... 188v3.0.9

......................................................................................................................................................... 188v3.0.8

......................................................................................................................................................... 188v3.0.7

......................................................................................................................................................... 188v3.0.6

......................................................................................................................................................... 189v3.0.5

......................................................................................................................................................... 189v3.0.4

......................................................................................................................................................... 189v3.0.3

......................................................................................................................................................... 190v3.0.2

......................................................................................................................................................... 190v3.0.1

......................................................................................................................................................... 190v3.0.0

................................................................................................................................... 19425 Opening Formatter Notes in BEAMER

Index 195

6 BEAMER Release Notes


1 Release Version

1.1 V5.9

1.1.1 V5.9.0

Some changes have been made to the various formatters (JEOL,visual-Job, GPF, VEP,RNS, ADVANTEST, HIMT, CRESTEC and ELIONIX). This information is documented inthe relevant Formatter Notes.

Enhancements

· Licensing

o A logfile analysis tool for CodeMeter license tracking logs has been implemented.This feature is described in the GenISys Installation Guide. Please [email protected] for more information.

· PEC

o 3D-PEC for Laser now also corrects for more general beam shapes by adding anadditional Gaussian term to the beam blur.

o 3D-PEC using Lateral Development (E-Beam and Laser) will now issue a warningindicating if a pixel dose was limited due to a specified dose range and would haveassigned a higher value otherwise.

o 3D-PEC for Laser: Resist Development Rate is now modeled using an extendedMack 4 model.

o 3D PEC Layer Assignments alternative handling. Instead of loading a layer definitionfile into the GUI (editing possible) it is now possible to just select the name of anexisting file containing the definitions. The definitions will be evaluated on the flyduring PEC execution. This way of layer assignment is especially interesting forcorrection with several thousand layers.

o The RuleOPC has been extended to allow signal definition to check e.g. distancesagainst shapes on other not corrected layers.

o The RuleOPC has a new action “CutCorner” to allow the modification of corners, e.g.to remove 90 deg corners from layouts.

o Shape-PEC for Laser - A new setting: Minimum Segment Length [um] parameter canbe used to modify the edge extent that can be addressed with an individual bias.Besides the Shift Step Size [um] this is the main accuracy setting. By default, it is setto the Laser beam size (FWHM). Laser Shape-PEC now also features a Dose Factorparameter that basically shifts the optimization threshold: default 1.0. Higher valueswill result in a stronger negative bias.

· Modules

o Modules in running flows can now be paused and later resumed. This is especiallyhelpful for long running process steps blocking interim execution of tasks byconsuming the available licenses. Pause and Resume buttons are in the BEAMERTool Bar.

7Release Version


o In the Fracture module, Advanced tab, Multipass Mode, Mainfield and Subfield Offsetvalues can now be either Absolute (µm) or Relative (previous behavior). This appliesalso to Export modules (in the Multipass tab) which support these functions.

o The Fracture module has been improved to maintain more arrayed elements ratherthan flattening the data. This can improve the viewing sped significantly. Axiallyparallel and rotated arrays are drawn as a rotated rectangles; only on zooming in arethe individual elements displayed.

o It is now possible to select Multipass Mode options in the Fracture module for Fieldtraversal: Field Follow Geometry mode. Options available are the same as in FloatingField Mode except that Field Offsets cannot be specified

o For modules such as Fracture, Extract and Export, the user can now resize and moveselection boxes (Regions) in the layout view window. Region Resize / Move mode isactivated by holding the ctrl button + the left mouse button pressed. In case ofoverlaying boxes, the box with the smallest area is selected. The mouse-wheelbehavior has been limited to the current window area.

o Extract Module: Using the Cell Extraction Dialog one can now open an extract CellList and on clicking on a cell name, the cell is opened for display in the VIEWER.

o Import GDS and TXL: An option has been added to flatten the layout for TXL andGDS import. This can for example be useful when the imported layouts contain toomany references and would produce too many cells during import.

o E-Beam Module: The E-Beam dialog now offers metrology lines for CDmeasurement similar to LAB. The CD measurements are written to the log file.Theunits for the E-Beam energy result are changed to relative units. In the dialog we enterrelative dose values and the unit in the image result view needs to be a relative unit.

o The ChipPlace module now accepts variables / expression syntax in the arrayposition, repetition and pitch parameters.

o Large arrays in ChipPlace are now displayed as chip boundaries (rectangles) toimprove the viewing speed.

o RuleOPC has been extended to allow signal definitions to check e.g. distancesagainst shapes on other not corrected layers.

o RuleOPC has a new action “CutCorner” to allow the modification of corners, toremove 90 deg corners from designs.

· VIEWER

o Picking a geometry in VIEWER will show the center of gravity (CoG) of the selectedgeometry.

o The Local box within the Navigation View in the VIEWER can now be zoomed in/outvia mouse wheel.

o Two New VIEWER Keyboard Shortcuts have been added: Ctrl + + increase inHierarchy Tree and Ctrl + - decrease of Hierarchy Tree. This applies to the actuallayout.



· Python

o The version dependency of BEAMER has been removed. BEAMER now works withall Python versions.

o The Export as Python has been improved to export only the python script/ parametersthat are used in the module. This reduces the number of exported parameters permodule.

· General

o Modules awaiting a license are now characterized by up to three recurring dots in themodule.

o The Properties section has been reorganized.

o The dialog message "Modifying process parameters ... Do you want to proceed?"can now be turned off in BEAMER properties (General tab: Warning on ModuleReset).

o A new feature "Layout Text Generation" has been implemented in theProperties/General tab. These settings are then used in modules such as Import andChipPlace where text can be generated or be converted.

o Error reporting has been improved for all products. Some previously unhandled errors(e.g. during initialization or closure of the application) are now reported.

Changes

· The drawing of Curves in the VIEWER has been changed to now use the "Curveapproximation accuracy" selected in the Properties Dialog rather than just 1.0 value of theDatabase Grid. This assures, that the visualized elements are closer to the realcalculation conditions.

Solved Issues

· PEC: Using extremely small database units (0.010000e-6 µm) in the layout could haveresulted in errors. This problem has been solved.

· PEC showed significant dose value fluctuations for 45° structures for the Short-Range-PEC, Shape-PEC, Rule- and Model-OPC modules. This issue has been resolved.

· 3D-PEC Laser crashed, it the user tried to overwrite an existing contrast curve. This issuehas been resolved.

· Metrology Module: In the Metrology module metrology lines defined and then de-selectedwere still active. This issue has been solved.

· The BEAMER Manual section on Variables is being improved and updated.

· An error was fixed where operations could fail on layouts containing very large layernumbers (close to 65536).

9Release Version


· FDA: Due to internal rounding issues, it could have happened, that during an Extract withDose Classification ‘Shrink’, on a pattern with an FDA- assign followed by an FDA-multiply with a multiplication value with more than 3 digits, that a dose class was removed.This issue is resolved.

· Shape PEC: Overdose/Undersize failed when the input Layout contained more than onelayer. This problem has been resolved.d



1.2 V5.8

1.2.1 V5.8.2

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (Elionix, JEOL, Crestec). Thisinformation is documented in the relevant Formatter Notes.

Enhancements

· Export Generic Bitmap (png): the bit level of the png export can be reduced to the real bitlevel used in png files; the limitation of the gray values is defined by a separate controland the user can define the maximum number of used gray values. This allows the user toartificially limit gray level for a 3D exposure.

· The additional tool buttons for visual-Job and ChipPlace modules have been put into asecond line of the toolbar to improve visibility, independent of the screen size.

Solved Issues

· Applying a reflect-x or a reflect-y on a curve could have resulted in wrong pattern data;this could have happened during import of curved pcells inside of a GDS file or by usingthe transform function on a pattern with curves. This problem has been resolved.

· Export Modules: Multipass with Field Shift could have resulted in changing shift positionsdepending on pattern size and main field size. The issue observed occurred only forconditions in which the dimensions of the layout extent subseeded the field dimensions. Inthese cases the created Multipass fields were aligned (centered) to the layout extent. Thisadditonal centering invalidated the correct Multipass field positioning. To solve this issue,in the case of Multipass, the pattern extent is now enlarged to cover at least one field.The extension in Y is either to the top or bottom - depending on the traversal direction. Inthe X-direction, the extension is always to the right. This could have lead to scenarios inwhich the overall fields covering the original pattern were not centered. This problem hasbeen resolved.

· The fracturing of elements in Multipass treated layout data that contained only arrayedgeometries as empty. This issue occurred for all Export modules and the Fracturemodule. The data of a field was lost, if Floating Field AND field Multipass AND onlyarrayed geometries occurred inside of the field.

· Python: BEAMERpy failed to pass resolution parameters for the Fracture operation. Thisproblem has bee solved

· In the Bias module on performing a 10 nm XY bias on curved structures, an odd artifactcould have been seen. The Bias operation has been improved for numerical stability.

1.2.2 V5.8.1

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (GPF, visualJOB, Elionix andADVANTEST). This information is documented in the Formatter Notes.

Solved Issues

· During installation of BEAMER 5.8.0, it could happen that the installation configurationfiles on Windows systems were overwritten. This problem has been resolved,configuration files are no longer overwritten by updates.

11Release Version


· Fracture module: The Floating Field fracturing operation has been improved to correctlyconsider the maximum extent of the selected pattern and the Top-Cell frame for fieldalignment. Fields at layout corners were not centered correctly. This problem has beensolved.

· The circle/ring detection of the Curved fracturing export option has been improved forstability. In very rare conditions the circle/ring detection calculation failed due to invalidangle treatment. These situations are now handled in a such a way, that the element is notdetected and fractured in regular fashion (LRFT).

· VIEWER: The functionality of selecting a top level of a layout in the Layer or dose tab ofthe Viewer and using Hide or Show is working correctly again.

· In some BEAMER modules layer names with commas ',' are not allowed. This results intoerror messages during the operation, Modules like Heal and Mapping cannot be closedwith target layer name including commas; now an error message "Layer must not containa ','" is issued.

1.2.3 V5.8.0

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (JEOL, GPF, VEP, RNS,ADVANTEST, HIMT, CRESTEC and ELIONIX). This information is documented in theFormatter Notes.

Enhancements

· Rule OPC: o The inner and outer distance signal in RuleOPC has a new additional parameter

"SearchAngle". Previously the distance signal was determined only along theperpendicular bisector of a segment. With the SearchAngle parameter the "searchsector" for the segment can be widened. All edges within that sector that are within thesearch range are taken into account to determine the minimum distance. Themaximum search angle is 180°. If the value is set to zero the behavior is exactly asbefore.

o Bias Limit:The influence range was not calculated correctly. This problem has beenresolved. In certain cases (e.g. signal dependent bias values) the automaticmechanism fails. A new Bias Limit variable has been introduced to define a properinfluence range.

o The preprocessing of the Rule-OPC does a segmentation of edges. A parameter forthe maximum length of these segments was introduced. To have an influence on thatlength might be helpful for some rules. (I.e. for distance dependend bias on curvedstructures, the length of the segments has a tremendous influence on the quality of theoutput.)

· Corner PEC: The achieved dose accuracy was not reported by the Corner-PEC moduleLog Info, as it is with the standard PEC module. This prevented easy analysis of the PECaccuracy. Corner PEC log now reports dose accuracy.

· 3D PEC: o The memory behavior of 3D PEC with lateral development has been improved.

Previously long computation and memory issues were a problem.



o 3D Topography PEC has been extended to support an arbitrary number of differentproximity regions specified by layers/PSF combinations.

· FDA Module: Dose assignments can now be simply removed with the FDA: Mode: ByLayer, Assignment Type: Assign: "*" "1.0" which assigns the dose “1.0” to all layers. Ingeneral, all FDA results that contain only dose 1.0 will now be marked as PECcompatible.

· Fracture Module, Maintain Grid: This option keeps the resolution of the incoming layoutand fractures as if the resolution field would have had this value

· The GDSII import module now supports KLayout PCells. The PCells ARC, CIRCLE,DONUT and PIE from the Basic library are imported as curves. Other PCells use thepolygonal representation in the GDSII file.

· Import PNG (Generic Bitmap): The BMP import and export have been extended tosupport the same options as the PNG import/export.

· Export Modules: o The Export Parameter supports the selection of Multipass layer(s) now also by a

Layout Layer Selection Dialog Box

o The Data Compaction options (Feature Sorting in Field) has been improved topreserve the original element order for uncompacted elements. Where PEC is appliedthe sorting is based on the element dose values rather than the original element order.This can reduces the number of subfields significantly (Array compaction only).

· Properties (BEAMER, File tab): 3 New options were introduced:o Disable Auto-Connect and Auto-positioning of modules.

o Disable Auto-Opening for undefined Modules

o Disable confirmation during save flow in new format

· Properties: Floating Fields max. search time. Please refer to the individual Tool FormatterNotes for a full description of this fedocature.

· Filter Module: The Filter module has an additional option to invert the full filter results. Thiscan be useful to select 'Manhattan Only' features

· Merge Module: The Merge module now has an origin alignment option similar to that ofthe Transform module.

· TXLo Format now supports text polygon elements. Such texts are always converted to

polygons during import and thus are considered as regular layout (compare "Converttext to polygons" option for text elements).

o Elements can now be parsed with a dose tag that assigns the externally defined dose tothe element. It is set up in the same way a layer is defined. TXL files with these dosetags can also be exported accordingly.

o Spaces in cell names are replaced with '_'.

· Quick Access

13Release Version


o QuickAccess is now part of the Modules & Libraries Panel. QuickAccess isdetatchable (Program bar, View tab, F10) and by default attached.

o Quick access for PEC and E-Beam now allows to set the PSF filename and the PSFarchive selection. For various files within QuickAccess a browse button is nowavailable for file selection.

o Clicking on the name of a module in the QuickAccess panel highlights the module inthe Work Space, similar to a left-click on the module.

· Linux shared libraries built by us now contain a monotonically increasing version numberin their names to avoid dynamic linkage conflicts between multiple installed versions ofour products.

· VIEWER: When the layout viewer is opened within a dialog, measuring, and pressing theescape key will now abort the measurement and no longer close the dialog.

· Info Panels/Measurement Tab: All measurements are now kept and displayed in the InfoPanels/Measurement Tab. In the VIEWER measurements are displayed as previouslydepending on the setting: Keep Pick/Measurement data in the VIEWERProperties/Measurement tab.

· The maximum supported line length in flow file reading has been increased from 8192 to256*1024 characters. This solved loading problems in flows with long layer or cell lists,such as the Extract module.

· The Transform module has been extended to allow not only a center xy, but also a centerx and center y.

· Right-click on a single module opens the context menu which allows a module to bedisabled or enabled. Note this option is not available for the blue modules.

Changes

· BEAMER Modules in the Modules & Libraries panel has been renamed Modules.

· The main flow Global Variables table assignment table is now merged into the QuickAccess Window.

Solved Issues

· Shape PEC with Overdose/Undersize was prone to dose show differences betweenshort range tiles. This issue has been resolved.

· Canceling a loop (End loop module) did not reset the progress bars. This issue has beenresolved.

· Fracture Module: The fracturing module Grouping Distance is now enabled properlybased on the selected Writing Mode and selected Grouping Option.

· Heal module : Missing heal options are now available to be switched on for the quickaccess feature.



· A global/local variable issue handling, for example, using %bias% %gbias% in a user flowdialog, and having %bias% as variable in another module parallel to the user low, thevalue of %bias% was assigned in the user flow, instead of %gbias%. This issue hasbeen resolved.

· Under certain conditions pattern data was duplicated by PEC. This issue has beenresolved.

· The button in the help browser were not functional on some version of Linux.(Table ofContents, Keyword Index and Search) This problem has been solved.

· The Script module has an additional option to decide if a console window should beshown or not, default is to not show a window. The inconsistent behavior (Linux alwaysshowed a window, Windows did not show one) between Windows and Linux has beenresolved.

15Release Version


1.3 V5.7

1.3.1 V5.7.4

Changes

· The GDS II import of BEAMER is based on the official GDSII specifications originallydeveloped by “Calma”. This specification states that a set Magnification (Mag) orRotation (Angle) is only applied to a structure, if the “STRANS” – flag is set to “true”.Otherwise the “MAG” and “ANGLE” commands are supposed to be ignored. During thepast few days we received several customer pattern where the “STRANS” command ismissing, but the structure has magnification or rotation arguments. We checked againstcommon tools and found that these are tolerant against this spec-nonconformity.

Consequently, the BEAMER GDSII import has been adjusted to apply the rotation andmagnification, even if the “STRANS” Flag is missing.

1.3.2 V5.7.3

Some changes have been made in the Raith GPF, Raith RNS, Elionix, Crestec, andKBTEM Export modules. This information is documented in the relevant Formatter Notesand manual.

Solved Issues

· 3D PECo 3D Topographic PEC lost region layers. Region layers are used to define the

topography but are not corrected and remained unchanged after the correction. Due toa bug in layer pre-processing for topographic PEC only one of these layers wasactually saved. This issue has been resolved.

o T-Gate PEC involves a bias and dose optimization. The dose assignments depend onthe proper bias value consideration. The algorithm was unexpectedly sensitive togeometry variations resulting in too large dose corrections. Dose factors are nowproperly corrected.

o PEC preserves pre-fracturing of the input also at tile borders. The PEC operation triedto reduce the figure count by merging elements after the operation that might have beenclipped during the correction at tile borders. Now only elements are merged that werereally clipped during the PEC. Elements that just happened to be pre-fractured exactlyat the tile border, before the PEC, will not be merged in order to preserve the input pre-fracturing.

o In scenarios with a very high accuracy (0.1%) the used influence range for thecalculation was too small. The necessary influence range for the calculation is nowadapted according to the PEC accuracy which can result in slightly larger computationtimes.

· Export DXF: DXF export into 2 byte characters failed on windows (for Japaneseversions). This issue has been resolved.

· ChipPlace Module: Large arrays can be defined in the ChipPlace module and saved in asimple manner. However removing individual chips from a large array leads toexcessively long position lists. The ChipPlace module can save and load flows with longlists of array positions for chips and text; the strings are split into several strings andstored in the flow file. Under these conditions, a saved flow could sometimes not bereopened and an error message: "string too long for scanner buffer" was issued. Thisissue has been resolved in this BEAMER version.



· A required file (tracer.analytic) was missing in the distribution package. This issue hasbeen resolved.

· Flattening a sub-flow caused BEAMER to crash in a Centos6 environment: Now weremove the flow connection to the first module in the sub-flow before flattening the flow,all other connections stay in place.This allows a stable Flatten Subflow (Library) operationon all platforms.

· Importing GDS files with a path statement containing 2 points which are identical, and witha width > 0 and rounded endings, caused BEAMER to crash. This issue has beenresolved.

1.3.3 V5.7.2

Some changes have been made in the Raith GPF, Elionix, Advantest, KBTEM Exportmodules and visualJob module. This information is documented in the relevant FormatterNotes and manual.

Enhancements

· Use Fixed Module Display Size in the File/Properties tab: multiple use of similar modulesin a flow does not increase the individual module sizes when activated.

Solved Issues

· A modification to ChipPlace in BEAMER 5.7.0 could have caused a crash after setting upan array. This problem has been solved.

· The functionality of scaling the exported PNG from the VIEWER, was not working inBEAMER 5.7.0 and 5.7.1, the png file was scaled but the drawn layout data have notbeen scaled. This issue is resolved.

· An issue where the DXF import of NURBS as curves could run forever was solved. DXFimport of NURBS as curves has been made more robust and provides betterapproximation and minimizes fallbacks to a polygon representation.

· Applying a replace with cell by layout mode, could cause additional geometries in theresult layout, if the "to be replaced" cell contains sub cells for the spatially sorting of thegeometries. This issue is resolved.

1.3.4 V5.7.1

Some changes have been made in the JEOL, Crestec, Elionix and NuFlare ExportModules. This information is documented in the relevant Formatter Notes and manual.

Solved Issues

· Field Follow Geometry (FFG): Region Layer handling has been improved as follows:

o There could have been cases where the FFG generated layers interfered with theselected Region layers. In these cases the FFG layer could have been removedfrom the layout data which led to missing data in the result.

17Release Version


o Selecting multiple region layer in one pass, several different region layer numbershave been merged into one single field. In general different region layers implyindividual field - paths. This discrepancy has been resolved for the fracturing step.This change could change the existing behavior and produce additional fields.

o When used together with a region layer, the data inside of the region had beenadded unintentionally to the result layout. This issue is resolved.

· Corner PEC: Applying Corner PEC with short-range enabled resulted in overlappingshapes on the edge of some of the pattern shapes. Even if the corner- edge bulkseparation delivers no bulk contribution to all the corners, PEC operation can beperformed and the error message previously issued is now suppressed. In rare cases thecorner PEC caused multiple shapes at one place, this issue is resolved.

· Global variables in file names in export modules prevented viewing exported files.

1.3.5 V5.7.0

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (JEOL, GPF, VEP, RNS,ADVANTEST, HIMT, CRESTEC, KBTEM and ELIONIX). This information is documentedin the Formatter Notes.

Enhancements

· Rule OPC A Segment Assignment Preview functionality was added to the Rule-OPCdialog. On pressing Segment Assignment Preview current settings for layoutsegmentation are taken into account and a preview in the form of a new layout generated,where each of the layers represent one of the types of Segment Assignment (such asCorner, Long Segment, Outer Corner, Inner Corner etc.).

· Fracturing:

o Fracture Module: A Subfield Fracturing option has been added to the Fracturemodule. This option is only available when performing fracturing in the Flat withFields Fracturing Type. When activated, the fracture module will not generate anystructures larger than the Subfield Size [µm] specified in the Fracture Fields tab.

o A new fracture option Symmetric Fracturing is now available. This option allows tocreate x/y axis symmetric fractured elements depending on the selected FractureMode.

o FDA module: In the FDA module, (Dose) Assignment By Region Mode,Userdefined Fracture Settings, Fracture Grid [µm] and Minimum Figure Size [µm]features are now available.

o The longrange PEC is now able to preserve specific cells. To specify these cells,the PEC Dialog has been extended. The new dialog entry “Cells to keep” allows tospecify a series of Cells to be preserved. For easy selection of cells, the ellipsisbutton allows to open a Select Cells dialog. Please note, that this dialog providesalso a Filter which allows to reduce the number of entries in the listed. The wildcardsymbols ? and * allow to skip a single or multiple characters respectively. Theselected cells have to meet the following requirements:

§ The cells have to be selected without transformation (rotation, mirror, scaling).



§ The cell extent needs to be of reasonable size (e.g. <1µm) to be not split by thelong-range PEC and assure a reasonable dose assigned to.

· Feature and Field sorting:

o A new Automatic mode for the Start Position of the Feature Sorting in field hasbeen implemented. In combination with the field sorting mode FieldsFollowGeometry this is the default mode. When this mode is selected theStart Position is set to the closest feature in the previous field in FollowGeometryfeature sorting mode and to the closest feature of the previous compaction region.

o The FollowGeometry feature sorting algorithm in the Fracture module has beenimproved. For most patterns the algorithm should now result in smaller jumps andshould be faster.

o In addition to the available methods, using the Shift Key with a double-click on theleft mouse button defines a manual field with the previously defined field size,centered on the mouse pointer position.

o Field ordering: the Floating Field feature has been improved. Paths have beenoptimized to find the shortest path with more efficient field placement. NOTE: thistraversal path improvement can result in longer calculation times.

o The Export modules, in addition to the available methods, using the Shift Key with adouble-click on the left mouse button defines a manual field with the previouslydefined field size centered on the mouse pointer position.

· Quick Access: Most Modules now have an extra panel where one can define QuickAccess parameters. Those can be accessed without opening all the dialogs now from theQuick Access Window which can be opened under Program Menu/VIEW or using F10. Ifparameters are changed the node and all subsequent nodes will be reset WITHOUTwarning.

· The Edit module now has an Undo Reset functionality. This option is available in a pop-up menu (right-click). This option is only available after resetting the Edit module.

· VIEWER:

o Entries in viewer hierarchy tree are now sorted alphabetically.

o The option "Color by subfield" can now be accessed by the short cut F8.

o The current active drawing speed factor is saved when closing the view and will beset when reopened the view.

· From version 5.7.0 on whenever an unknown parameter is read during flow load BEAMER will issue a warning which will not break of Flow operation but hints the user thatsome parameters are not used during calculations and informs the user that when thisflow is saved again those parameters are not saved.

· PNG Import: for controlling the smoothness of large lenses in very deep resist it isimportant to control the granularity of the grey values in the PNG export. This approachintends to reduce the count of layers generated during the Import operation. At the sametime we need some small steps for very shallow angles. This is possible by bundling greyvalues via table input. The table specifies how many grey values should be bundled into

19Release Version


one Layer. The exclusion of certain grey values is still possible, when the Bundle Ratio isundefined or specified with 0. The defaults set in the import dialog remained the same.

· Merge Module: it is now possible to multi-connect a Merge module to multiple selectedmodules which have free out-ports. If more than 1 module is selected and a Mergemodule is dropped in the flow area, it will connect to the selected modules automatically.

· Metrology module. for consistency metrology lines are now labeled L1, L2 … and nolonger R1, R2 …

· Replace Module: the dialog in the Replace module has been improved to provide a betteroverview. Instead of selecting the Replacement Mode via a radio button, it can now beselected via a drop down menu. Only the parameters that apply to the selected mode arethen visible. The parameters for each mode itself are unchanged and presented in exactlythe same order as before.

· The environment setup for the Python interpreter has been integrated in the scriptsdeployed with a BEAMER installation. (See BEAMER Installation Guide for additionalinformation).

· From the view button on an Export module it is now possible to view the exported results.It is no longer necessary to re-import the data. "Multi-viewing" of Export node results isalso possible.

· Linux Installation: Certain Ubuntu / Debian package dependencies have been relaxed toallow installation on different versions of the operating system.

· Export MEBES The MEBES Export Driver has been improved to utilize multiple threads.For sample layout data this achieves a factor of ~4x faster.

· BEAMER now supporst Ubuntu 18.04.

Solved Issues

· 3D PED:

o Wrong doses were assigned to large areas in 3D PEC. This was resolved

o Using variables or non-valid numbers like 1.0.1 in the contrast curve caused the 3DPEC dialog to crash the application. This was resolved.

· Hierarchic operations now use less memory for analyzing data. Previously large datapatterns were slowly processed and could have resulted in a BEAMER crash.

· Input layout data was missing on correctly setup flow: The cause was an incorrectconnection in the flow file which looked correct in the GUI and caused the error messageduring execution. The connection is now checked during input loading, to display onlycorrect connections.

· BEAMER/VIEWER, Import CIF file: During import of a line with width of 1 database unitand a circular extension, the CIF import resulted in an error message. A polygon of widthof 1db unit is now created and the circular extension is ignored as it is not possible tocreate it with the chosen db unit.



1.4 V5.6

1.4.1 V5.6.2

Some changes have been made in the Advantest, Elionix and JEOL Export Modules. Thisinformation is documented in the relevant Formatter Notes and manual.

Solved Issues

· In the Extract module going back to Extraction Type:Entire Layout having previouslyselected Extraction Type: Region: Exclude Region(s)/Instances did not reset ExcludeRegion(s)/Instances and the complete pattern was missing.This problem was solved.

· During Export BEAMER could freeze and never complete. The issue could happen in rarecases if the layout is very dense so that the available memory per field (tool page) issignificant smaller than the needed memory for one field. This triggers a creation ofadditional fields during the export, in this mechanism it happened that the memoryoverflow was not handled correctly. The consequence was a never ending export.Thefallback handling to re-start with a new field definition in case of Buffer memory overflowhas become more robust.

· Importing a DXf file including curves and applying a transformation with an reflect andadding a layout operation like heal could result in missing pattern parts, this was causedby an error in the reflect operation, which generated wrong oriented curves. this issue isresolved.

· In case of hierarchic long range PEC, some features may have been lost under certainconditions. This issue was fixed.

1.4.2 V5.6.1

Some changes have been made in the Advantest Export. This information is documented inthe relevant Formatter Notes and manual.

Solved Issues

· The 3D surface PEC for e-beam was not working with a numerical PSF as input, whenlateral development was activated. This issue has been resolved.

· Unnecessary checks in the execution of Python flows reduced the performancesignificantly. These checks have been removed to improve the performance.

· ChipPlace - Loading an arrayed pattern (this could be an imported OASIS file, or theresult of a long range PEC on an array of cells) into Chipplace resulted in a crash. Thisissue has been resolved.

· Multithreaded python flows could run into instabilities due to suboptimal thread handling.The thread handling has been improved for a better stability of the operations.

· A Python object can be destroyed with the command " del gobj".

· The settings provide more control over the temp file creation. The user can decide tominimize the creation of temp files, which does improve the performance of some

21Release Version


operation but also reduces the recovery capabilities. On the other hand can the usermaximize the temp file creation, which will maximize the recovery capabilities.

· The conversion of an arc with curved fracturing could have failed with wrong geometries.Such cases were where the arc begin and ended points were 45, 135, 225 or 315 degreedirection and if the inner arc and the outer arc were on different sides of this angle.

Pattern Integrity Issues

· Curved Fracturing - The conversion of an arc with curved fracturing misplacedgeometries, in cases where the arc begin and end points are in a 45, 135, 225 or 315degree direction and if the inner arc and the outer arc are on different sides of this angle.This issue has been resolved.

1.4.3 V5.6.0

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (JEOL, GPF, VEP, RNS,ADVANTEST, HIMT, CRESTEC,KBTEM and ELIONIX). This information is documentedin New Features in the various exposure tool Formatter Notes.

Pattern Integrity Issue

· On certain small structures (such as holes) slivers created by use of the NOT and BIAScommands could have resulted in unwanted structures. This issue has been resolved.

Enhancements

· Major pattern operations have been improved to preserve more curve segments. Thefollowing operations do not yet support curves: Bias, curves other than circles, nonisometric Transform operations and PEC if fracturing needs to be applied. NOTE: thecurve handling can modify previous operation results.

· Fracture module:

o The Field Traversal Option: Fields Follow Geometry has been enhanced with newfunctions (Maximum Geometry Width etc), see BEAMER manual for full information.

o The Fracture module supports the definition of a starting point for the feature sortingmode writing order and follow geometry.

o Extended functionality for field control (and Cell I/D Extract). The list has now theoption to select multiple items and drag them to a new position. All selected items willbe consolidated into one block (the order will be kept ) and inserted at the dropposition. Further the Interactive dialog is extended by 2 additional buttons: "Move top"and "Move bottom" which does as named with either a single selection or a wholeblock of selected items. This applies only to the "Manual Re-Sorting" option.

o The Fracturing operation for the option Flat with Fields has been optimized formultithreading throughput.

o Show traversal path option is now available in Viewer, but only in Fracture results with"Flat with Fields".



o The fracture dialog has a preview fractured data button which uses the current settingsand fractures the data of the current viewed part of the layout to allow the user tocompare the fractured data with the original data.

· VIEWER

o (Fracture module) Show traversal path option is now available in VIEWER, but only inFracture results with "Flat with Fields".

o Toggling Specific Fields for viewing in the VIEWER is now possible. The VIEWERnow has an additional tab (Cell Selection) in which you can select and deselect anddisplay cells. Deselecting cell at a higher hierarchic level also deselects at a lowerlevel.

· Merge: the Merge module has now the possibility to use different options for extentassignment (Maintain [default], Minimum, User Defined).

· Import DXF: Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) are now converted to curvesinstead of polygons when importing a DXF file.

· Export/Import Textlib: the Textlib Export/Import driver has been extended with the newFeature type "Curve". This allows to import/export Polylines with additional bulgeinformation.

· Dragging a module from the base module window into the main flow window while controlkey is pressed and dropping it onto a module which already has an outport connection willnow add a split port to this module and connect both modules to the split portautomatically. The same happens if a module in the main flow window is highlighted and amodule in the base module tab is double clicked while pressing the control key.

· The softframe handling may take a serious portion of the overall calculation time indifficult scenarios. In order to keep scaling behavior, the softframe handling is nowperformed distributedly in the cluster version of BEAMER.

· Export PNG: Exporting PNG images is now possible in 16 bit grey scale.

· On closing a flow including EDIT modules the user has the possibility to save the resultsfrom the Edit module(s). If one or more of the files already exist the user is prompted toreplace or generate new names.

· The EBEAM Result Settings Panel has been restructured for better clarity and ease ofuse.

· The Python interface from BEAMER can now be used multithreaded. One instance ofBEAMER can be instantiated and shared between different threads started in Python.Depending on the number of available threads, operations started in parallel via Pythonare executed in parallel. The behavior is comparable to the usage of the GUI and clicking the Run To button on different modules.

Changes

23Release Version


· Metrology: Metrology node now measures dose at midpoint of measurement line. In theresulting analysis view the user can now switch between CD and dose measurement viadropdown.

· All tables in BEAMER which do not request any extra user authorization to delete an entrynow support deletion of multiple entries.

· Export modules now checks for empty Region names. Rows with an empty region nameresult in the following error message: Invalid table entry: Region Name undefined.

Solved Issues

· Import GDS: Importing GDS files containing polygons with vertices exceeding the allowedGDS number of points could result in missing data. The GDS import has been improvedto allow multipleXY Records within one boundary. (See BEAMER Manual for moreinformation)

· Fracture module:

o The fracturing step with region extract required an additional “Remainder” step,(Remainder pass (*//*). The user could not perform a ‘selected only’ operation.It isnow possible to omit this final step.

o The Fracture module seemed to ignore some parameters, specifically field size, whencalled from Python. Now the fracture command has been improved to consider theselected parameters more completely.

o While fracturing using layer order with specific layer orders listed, shapes on thoselayers could have been duplicated.

· An error "Unhandled Exception" could have occurred during LOOP processing resulting infalse BEAMER behavior. The Loop handling has been improved for stability on multiplethread operations.

· The extract operation with "ShrinkDoseClasses" has been modified to also removeunused "User defined Dose Classes". This could have resulted in some of the user-defined dose classes not being used.

· Importing a *.ftxt file having an empty region name could cause an error (Unexpectedstatement = in process flow line XXXX). Now writing empty names does not causeproblems.

· ChipPlace

o Using large arrays (100 x 100) could have caused the GUI to freeze. The performanceof Chip Place GUI/Viewer has therefore been significantly improved for arrays.

o On Linux systems ChipPlace either did not accept wafer size settings, or did a resetafter hitting OK or reopening the dialog.



1.5 V5.5

Changes made to the BEAMER software are documented in these Release Notesaccording to the release version. These changes are categorized as Enhancements,Changes and Solved Issues.

Some changes may have been made in the various Export modules. This information isdocumented in New Features in the various exposure tool Formatter Notes. For thesespecific machine changes please read the relevant machine Formatter Notes which areissued separately from the Release Notes and BEAMER manual.

1.5.1 V5.5.4

Some changes have been made in the Elionix; Advantest, JEOL Export and visual-Jobmodules. This information is documented in New Features in the relevant Formatter Notesand manual.

Solved Issues

· The compaction feature in the Replace module may have created arrays with incorrectpitches when dealing with non-orthogonal arrays or transformed arrays (e.g. rotated by90 degrees). This was fixed.


· Fracture module: The module has been improved to handle conditions better, whereelements in the selected region box do not confirm to the fracturing layer selection.

1.5.2 V5.5.3

Some changes have been made in the Elionix; Advantest, JEOL, and GPF Export modulesas well as visual-Job. This information is documented in New Features in the relevantFormatter Notes and manual.


· Fracture module

o Fields Follow Geometry: In rare cases additional data could have been introducedfor a Fields Follow Geometry fracturing on waveguides.

o Fracturing of the complex polygon into individual fields could have resulted induplicated elements. To avoid this issue, the polygon fracturing is executed priorfield assignment. In some cases this could increase the number of fractures. Thisissue occurred only with Floating/Manual Fields + Field Overlap.

Enhancements

· In the ChipPlace module, text labeling has been redesigned. Text labels can now beassigned to any array, with or without a pattern assigned to that array location, so it is nolonger necessary to create a separate array for text labels. Automatic labeling of arrayelements is now possible using label variables. With a single text definition, each arrayposition can be labeled with values such as row and column number, or dose assignment. See the manual for complete documentation.

Changes

25Release Version


· Fracture module: In the Fracture module layout view blue field grid lines were drawn for allmagnifications. This was especially problematic with dense grids. For a dense grid andzooming out, you could end up looking at a huge blue box. Now grid lines are drawn onlyif the boxes are at least of 10 pixels width and height.

Solved Issues

· Corner PEC: failed with an error message: "There are join databases left", in the case ofan inhomogeneous pattern with regions with a high vertex density. The root cause is thatthe first estimated tile size did not work due to the inhomogeneity and therefore a localsubtiling was done; this subtiling causing an error on doing the soft-frame operation whileclosing the layout.

· FDA module: Using the FDA module in the mode By Region could under certainconditions cause problems. The root cause is the relation between the chosen sigma andthe database grid, in this case sigma was 1um and the database grid was 0.1um. Thisshowed a bug in the routine of fracturing the geometries.

· In BEAMER 5.5.1 a bug was introduced regarding the recovery file handling incombination with E-Beam image results. Loading a recovery file including such an imageresult and trying to open the image result view caused a crash. These issues have beenresolved.

1.5.3 V5.5.2

Some changes have been made in the Elionix Export module. This information isdocumented in New Features in the Elionix Formatter Notes.


· Using the hierarchical BIAS module in conjunction with the TRANSFORM module couldhave resulted in missing features. For hierarchically processed files includingrotated/reflected or scaled cell references, cells may have been lost in very seldomcases. This may have occurred if a cell was called multiple times with different overalltransformations (reflections) in the original layout. Further this cell needs to have asubtree of depth > 1 including cells being also referred to elsewhere in the call tree. Itoccurred only under special conditions and then seldom. This problem was fixed.

· Heal Module: The Heal module with the option merge by dose, could have mergedpatterns that don’t belong together. This fix can change existing behavior and could resultin a larger number of elements.

1.5.4 V5.5.1

Some changes have been made in the following Export modules: JEOL, Visual-Job, GPF,VEP, HIMT, CRESTEC and ELIONIX. This information is documented in New Features inthe various exposure tool Formatter Notes.


· Pattern integrity issue for certain patterns containing small, non-Manhattan, unexposedareas completely surrounded by exposed geometries, an error could cause some smallshapes to be incorrectly exposed. This error was introduced in BEAMER 5.4.0, and hasbeen corrected in BEAMER 5.5.1.

Enhancements



· Import DXF: The DXF Polyline import has been improved to more accurately calculatethe Starting/Ending positions and Connection points.

NOTE: this modification may slightly change vertex position of the convertedcurvatures.

· 3D PEC, Lateral Development: User defined doses are now considered such thatneighboring pixels can adjust their doses if a pixel dose is limited by the dose limits. Theupper limit for the dose values needs to be larger or equal 1; previously this limit waslarger than 1. For user-defined dose classes this upper limit is now checked. Applicable,for example, for blazed gratings to improve the slope exposure.

NOTE: the modification will change existing behavior.

· E-Beam module: 1D and 2D views of E-Beam node now show the axis labels moreaccurately when one zooms in.

Solved Issues

· Hierarchical processing: In the case of hierarchic layouts with a large hierarchy tree, thehierarchal processing may sporadically have produced error messages or crashes. Thiswas fixed.

27Release Version


1.5.5 V5.5.0

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (JEOL, GPF, VEP,ADVANTEST, CRESTEC and ELIONIX). This information is documented in New Featuresin the various exposure tool Formatter Notes.


· Pattern integrity issue for certain patterns containing small, non-Manhattan, unexposedareas completely surrounded by exposed geometries, an error could cause some smallshapes to be incorrectly exposed. This error was introduced in BEAMER 5.4.0, and hasbeen corrected in BEAMER 5.5.0.

Enhancements

· PEC: It is possible to combine a numerical PSF with a single Gaussian. This is used totune the mid-range energy distribution. Note that the weight Nue of the additional Gamma[µm] is relative to the complete original PSF (100%). So a Nue = 0.1 means that 10%energy are added to the PSF. As the PSF will be renormalized during PEC the addition ofthe gamma term corresponds to a displacement of the PSF energy distribution.

· Download documents: This feature downloads the Manual, Specific Formatter Notes,Release Notes and License Agreements in pdf format to a user-selected folder.

· Extract Module:

o Cell Instance/Definition Extract table can now be sorted via Drag & Drop.

o The cell instances extract has an option to exclude the instances of the definedcells. Using %/get_cell_name(i))% now provides an alphabetically sorted cell list.The %(get_cell_name_list_called_more_than(i))% delivers a comma separatedlist of cellnames which are called more than i times.

· Python 3 scripting is now supported. Python binding now accepts byte strings as well asunicode strings as inputs.

· Reduced lifetime of temporary layout data implemented so that associated temporaryfiles are removed more timely.

· Boolean operations have been improved to preserve original layout points moreaccurately. This reduces the number of slivers significantly. NOTE: this modificationcould change existing behavior

· Import, GDS or TXL: When absolute magnification or absolute angle is detected in aGDS or TXL import, the following warnings are generated:

o "Absolute Angle Definition found, this can influence the behavior during applyingadditional transformations on this layout" and

o "Absolute Magnification Definition found, this can influence the behavior duringapplying additional transformations on this layout"

· Export Modules: Multipass fracturing accuracy has been improved for conditions in whichthe selected Resolution is not a multiple of the Field overlap. In previous versions, clippedelements have been rounded for successive fields non-symmetrically. The maximum



error by this was 1 resolution unit. This modification will influence all export driversutilizing the Multipass Mode: passes > 1 (EBPG, VEP, JEOL, Elionix and Crestec)

· In the Optimizer and Loop modules the Cancel button was not very effective. The Cancelfeature has now been improved.

Changes

· GenJobDeck has been renamed: ChipPlace.

· Export Modules and Fracture Module: Using Multipass mode together with field overlapthe width of the overlap is now rounded to a multiple of the resolution. Using overlapvalues different from the selected resolution, the overlap is rounded to be a multiple of theresolution. E.g. 4nm Resolution and 9.999um Overlap gives 10um Overlap.

· Viewer: Drawing speed can now be sped-up slowed-down using arrow controls in thelayout viewer. Removed replay mode.

· E-Beam Module: Region names are now displayed in the result view of the e-beammodule. Delete button is only available for regions not yet computed. Flow with resultscontaining the e-beam nodes will not be loadable in previous versions of BEAMER

· FDA by region now works with the Add assignment type. When using this assignmenttype doses are interpolated from the values specified in the dose assignment table(inside the region) to 0 (outside the region) and added to the original dose of the layout.Note that this differs from the other assignment types where the interpolation goes fromthe value specified in the dose assignment table (inside the region) to 1 (outside theregion).

Solved Issues

· PEC:

o Deviations at PEC tile borders could have occurred if insufficient neighboring tileinfluence was computed. This has been corrected.

o Hierarchic long range PEC in combination with applying mid range PEC may haveled to wrong doses. This was fixed.

o The hierarchic long range PEC may have failed in case of rather large array cells.This was fixed.

o SR PEC required lots of memory for layouts containing polygons with manyvertices. This problem has been solved.

o SR PEC lower dose range has been improved for large overlapping elements.

o Performing 3D-PEC with Topographic Substrate option but specifying emptyTopography Layer(s) caused PEC to crash. This was fixed. Furthermore the 3D-PEC dialog now shows an error message in case of attempting to do TopographyPEC without specifying a Topography Layer.

o Performing shape PEC on input polygons with many vertices, the result may havecontained polygons exceeding the maximum number of vertices specified in theBEAMER properties and thus slowing down the subsequent operations. This wasfixed.

29Release Version


o Using the corner PEC module inside a loop and switching on the option ParallelProcessing of Loops (File/Properties) causes wrong results, the corner PECmodule always executed with the default settings.

o Copy/paste of the corner PEC module was not copying the parameters: The newcorner PEC module was created with default settings. This has been solved

· Fracture module: Using the option Flat with Fields and NoFracturing in the Fracturemodule sometimes polygons with thin connection lines between 2 isolated polygonsrather than 2 unconnected polygons were created. The problem has been resolved.

· Fracture module: Region Traversal display now correct.

· Loop: Rounding- off took place for dose values within Loop module. On merging twolayouts having the same dose table, the merged result got some rounded version of thedose table as a consequence of merging the two dose tables. Now the merge modulerecognizes that the dose tables are the same and skips the dose table merging stepwhich included the rounding. Now the dose table remains unchanged.

· E-Beam Simulation: BEAMER crashed while trying to store/export simulated data.

· Aborting jobs during hierarchic operations sometimes the wrong error message "Errorduring hierarchy handling, please perform this operation with switching off the hierarchicprocessing checkbox and contact [email protected]" popped up. This wasfixed.

· Viewer: When using the Viewer in Color By Dose mode, the dose range was not correctlydetermined in some cases. This has been corrected.

· Extract module:

o In a combination of multiple extract regions with different behavior: clip, touchingand within, the result of the extract may have been incorrect. If the same geometryelement was intersected by regions with clip, touching and within, it was alwaysclipped if at least one region with clip and one with within was defined before onewith touching. This issue has been resolved.

o Extract operation on a referenced transformed array with more than one extractregion with the Region Box Default Mode "Touching" could lead to wrong (empty)result, even if there were some touched geometry elements in input layout.

o An extract on a zeroline (zigzag) with two overlapping extract regions in "clip"mode caused an empty result. This was fixed.

· Import Module: On importing an .fwr that was generated from a flow, BEAMER issued an"Internal program Error in file "layoutdbase.cpp" at line 3060". After a hierarchic operationon a pattern created by a merge, so that at least 2 topcells existed, a hierarchy level wasremoved and arrays of references were directly inserted into the topcell. This error hasbeen solved.

· Export:

o When selecting both "Exclude Regions" and "Keep Region Layer" in the ExtractOperation the specified "Region Layer" is preserved and part of the output layout.Note: Since this this layer was not preserved in older versions, this fix may havean impact on existing flows, when used with the "bug-fixed" versions.

o Export to png failed depending on the pattern extent and the chosen resolution.This issue has been solved.



· In the VisualFlow workspace, a paste operation into a new flow could fail until the userclicked in the new workspace. This has been fixed so that paste works.

31Release Version


1.6 V5.4

1.6.1 V5.4.4

Solved Issues

· GPF Export Issue solved. Please refer to the GPF Formatter Note

· Export: Data loss occurred under the following conditions: Using Field Overlap with theInterleaving overlap mode resulted in lost data, if in parallel the Extent was grown in aprior Extract operation. The Interleave is based on the original pattern extent rather than the enlarged pattern. Thisresulted in some fields being discarded and thus pattern loss occurred. The Export module was modified to now consider the pattern extent rather than the top-cell extent for the options "Interleaving" and "Interleaving with Extra Field" thus solving thisproblem.



1.6.2 V5.4.3

Enhancements

· For changes in the GPF and Advantest Export modules, see the relevant FormatterNotes.

· Replace module: Currently the Replace module can only replace cells with another layout(from the other input) but not geometries. The newest version has now an option toreplace all geometries from a defined layer with a full layout . The center of the boundingbox of the original geometry will be used to place the center of the new geometry.

Solved Issues

· Rule OPC: Importing a txt file to the Rule OPC module with the BIAS option loses the infowhen clicking OK and re-opening the dialog (Windows and Linux). This no longer occurs

· 3D T-Gate PEC was not working correctly with an explicit Correction Layer Selection onthe General tab. For correct behavior a “*” selection with preceding Extract was required.

· PEC: In case of layouts with micro-gaps the PEC long range fracturing may haveproduced overlaps. This was fixed. However, we recommend to close micro-gaps in theinput layout before performing PEC by applying a small positive bias followed by anegative bias of the same absolute value.

· Bias Module: Applying a negative BIAS to a pattern with small slivers adjacent to largerpolygons on the same layer resulted in the large polygons being broken up with internalgaps equal to the size of the bias.

· Import Module: Importing a TXL file under Linux (RedHat) without ‘Keep order ofelements’ activated resulted in a vast number of unreferenced cells (main cells).

· Filter Module: The ‘Area’ Filter has been modified to compare in microns rather than indatabase units. This allows for higher numerical precision.

· Filter Module: Missing data could occur on the processing of zoneplates. The Filteroperation with attributes Height and Width are rounded to database units. In case thisleads to a deviation from the original value, a warning message is issued. To minimizethe rounding that can take place, the Grid step can be used for specifying more accurateDatabase units.

· Fracture Module: On fracturing of curved elements (zoneplates), small gaps betweenabutting fractured elements could occur especially where the element had border linesangled at 45 degrees. The Curved fracturing has been improved for more consistentrounding of ring segments to resolution units.

33Release Version


1.6.3 V5.4.2

Enhancements

· Shape PEC for laser Exposure: Enhanced symmetry correction for scenarios with groupsconsisting of many short segments has been implemented. 'Short' is defined in relation tothe SR blur.

· Smoothing of the lateral development PEC result has been improved. Previously thesmoothing was too strong removing high dose peaks that are required for intended resistremoval. For scenarios with a beam blur >> lat. dev. pixel size which is typical for LaserPEC applications this was often the case.

· Fracturing: The fracturing of shapes has been improved to also run Shot-Pitch smoothingon non-symmetric polygons prior to fracturing. This smoothing reduces the number ofpoints which define the shapes in the layout. The new points are placed on the fracturinggrid. This may reduce the number of fractures and therefore trapezia.

NOTE: this modification can change existing behavior.

Solved Issues

· PEC: Applying hierarchic short range in 3D PEC on a pattern having complex slantedgeometries with hierarchy, which potentially could have be maintained, sometimes causeda crash. This issue is resolved.

· 3D-PEC, T-Gate mode: Asymmetric dose assignments in the gate layer caused by failurein detection of adjacent wing layer figures has been resolved.

· Non-Integer for Shot Pitch Crashes BEAMER. The verification of the Shot Pitch valuehas been improved to allow only values in the range of 1 - 500.

· Linux GUI issue: In case of opening a dialog with right click- and choosing "parameters", itwas not possible edit parameters. Furthermore, by pressing the delete key removed themodule not a parameter entry. These issues have been resolved.

· Replace module, Python commands: Two issues have been fixed in the pythonimplementation of the Replace module. Replacing a cell by a layout with the pythoncommand was not working and it was not possible to hand over two layouts to the pythoninterface. Both issues have been resolved.

· Hierarchic NOT pattern integrity issue in rare instances. The hierarchy engine tries tomaintain arrays by inverting the arrayed cell within its bounding box, and subtracts thesebounding boxes from the rest of the (inverted) layout. In case two equally sized arrays(n1=n2 and/or m1=m2) are overlapping and shifted against each other, the hierarchyengine will try to merge the two arrays into one, resulting in a larger bounding box. Ifanother geometry interferes with this new bounding box, the tone reversed area is notcorrect. This Problem was resolved.



1.6.4 V5.4.1


· Pattern Integrity Issue during a positive Bias operation: for a particular pattern withcomplex polygons, positive Bias created an additional geometry (this bug is present atleast since BEAMER 4.7). For the issue to appear, there needs to be a polygon with awhole inside that has a nearly vertical and nearly horizontal top left corner. As a result,the Bias erroneously created an additional geometry twice the size of the bias value atthe upper edge of the geometry.

Enhancements

· Shape PEC: Shape PEC now issues a warning if a shape corrected geometry is clipped atthe pattern extent. This provides the user the option to extend the limits beforehand ifnecessary.

· Extract module: The Extraction Type: Cell Definition in the Extract module has beenimproved to preserve the spatial sorting (permits fast extraction from large layouts). Thisallows for rapid access even to large, flat pattern structures.

Changes

· Hierarchic operations on patterns including Reflect X and/or Y (Transform Module) areno longer flattened during operation. This reduces the processing time.

· Transform module: The pattern transformation has been modified in a way to considerthe order of shapes in the input layout. In case the input layout does not already providea spatial sorting structure (e.g. by importing an GDSII file with the option "keep order ofelements"), then the transformed layout also does not resort the shapes. NOTE: thismodification can reduce the drawing and conversion speed of pattern data.

· In the Transform module moving the layout origin to the center when using largecoordinates did not always work correctly. This problem has been resolved.

· Shape PEC now issues a warning if a corrected figure was clipped at the input layoutlimits due to growth giving the user the possibility to extend the limits beforehand ifnecessary.

Solved Issues

· Fracture module: When running Fields Follow Geometry some polygons of the fracturedresult were assigned to the wrong layer. It occurred only in rare cases for rather complexlayouts with a mixture of Background Layer & Follow Branch layer(s).

· Applying an extract with shrink dose range on a pattern with a fixed doseclassificationwith smallest dose values lower than 1.0, results in a doseclassification starting with alower limit of 1.0. Geometries with a dose value lower than 1.0 show afterward a dose of1.0. This issue is resolved.

35Release Version


1.6.5 V5.4.0

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (JEOL, GPF, ADVANTEST,CRESTEC and ELIONIX). This information is documented in New Features in thevarious exposure tool Formatter Notes.

Note that the Release Notes, also for individual exposure tools included in the FormatterNotes are now available directly from the Help menu in BEAMER:

Enhancements

· FRACTURE Module:

o Feature & Region Sorting has been added to the Fracture Module.

Available Feature Ordering Modes:

§ NoCompaction, WritingOrder, FollowGeometry, Random

§ Available Region Ordering Modes for Feature Ordering Modes(WritingOrder, Random):

§ Meander X/Y, Raster X/Y, Nearest Next, Spiral Outwards, Random,Main Pattern Direction

o A feature Fields Follow Geometry has been implemented which ensures thatdefined structures can be successively followed when crossing field boundaries.PEC dose values are preserved. This parameter Maximum Geometry Widthdefines the maximum width of each of the followed structures.

o The fracturing option NoFracture has been added to the list of available fractureoptions for elements. In this mode polygonal shapes are preserved and ‘passedthrough’. This option is available for Flat with Fields only. This option allowsthe use of field ordering options without fracturing.

o A new Feature Traversal Type: RadialFromFieldCenter has been added to theFRACTURE/EXPORT Modules. This mode is intended especially for exposureof Zone Plate types of patterns. It assures that elements are exposed according totheir distance and angle from the field center. Abutting shapes are merged prior



to sorting and the merged shapes are then exposed according to the FollowContour approach. Patterns have to be smaller than one field size andcentered within the field. Complex pattern with numerous 'Zone Plate' need to becentered either by Manual Field option or by Floating Field option if sufficient.

Note: always check for proper alignment to the field center.

o The fracture dialog has an additional check box Interactive Re-sorting of Fields,this option is available in the Flat with Fields case only, after BEAMER hasdone the fracturing and sorting into the fields, an additional dialog pops up,which allows to switch of fields and to resort them manually.

o After executing a fracture step with the Interactive Re-sorting of Fields optionswitched on, an additional option is available in the pop up menu of the fracturemodule (right mouse-click on module): ‘Rerun Manual Re-sorting’ which allowsthe user to redo the resorting.

o The Fracturing operation for Random field placement has been improved to nowconsider the selected Fracturing options (Curved or Symmetric) correctly.

NOTE: this modification may change existing behavior.

o Curved Fracturing: Semicircles, ellipses and semi-ellipses are now treated ascurved structures

o Curved fracturing has now become available also for Multipass export mode.

· EXPORT Modules:

o The fracturing of convex polygonal shapes has been improved to consider theopposite vertices in X/Y during fracturing. Cutting of shapes through verticeswith equal coordinates in either X or Y could reduce the number of shapes bynot introducing additional cut points. To avoid slim shapes and shapes with "flat"slopes, the algorithm also considers the angle of edges.

NOTE: this modification can change existing results.

o The field clipping/fracturing of tilted lines and gratings has become moresymmetrical. This implementation now considers the original orientation - X or Y- and introduces the field cuts along this primary orientation.

o Exposing gratings for specific resolutions, for example, 0.02425 µm, could resultin gaps between abutting fields. This issue becomes more evident for largerresolutions and could have resulted in distortions especially for photonicgratings.

NOTE: this modification could change existing results.

o EXPORT Modules supporting Curved Fracturing: The curved fracturingoperation has been improved to reduce the number of jumps between thegenerated segments of rings/circles.

NOTE: this changes the writing order of elements

o Most formatters (see machine Formatter Notes): To improve export results circledetection is now based on the database grid rather than the resolution grid. Thisminimizes snapping issues.

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o Export to PNG: The color legend is now part of the exported png file.

· The HEAL module now has smarter "soft frame" functionality. In addition to themerging of small figures within the soft frame region, now the tile cuts may be shifted toavoid slivers and minimize final figure count. Rectangles are merged even if extendingbeyond the soft frame.

· The MERGE Module is now able to merge patterns with different resolutions. Pleasenote that the merge is restricted so that the all layouts must have resolutions which are amultiple of the smallest pattern resolution of merged layouts.

· IMPORT Module:

o DXF: The DXF import parameter dialog now allows to preserve single line data.The new option Preserve Single Lines is available only if the Convert SingleLines To Polygons option is selected.

o The DWG import formatter is now available in BEAMER. The Formatter hassimilar option like DXF and loads the AutoCAD DWG format.

o Oasis Import: The oasis import has been improved to account for cell referenceson undefined cells.

· The LOOP Module:

oHas an additional option: Loop over Layers, which loops over all layers of theimported layout.

o For the option Loop over Layer a Generate List button generates a layer list andwrites this list in the variable, and switches the radio button back to generic. Thisfeature only generates the list if the layers applied in the module are known.

· The NOT operation:

oHierarchic handling now improves performance of the NOT operation

· REPLACE Module

o Has a new option Replace repeated geometries by cells, which creates cells outof geometries and inserts a reference instead, this is a first step of a hierarchydetection.

o The Compaction option now creates more levels of hierarchy: polygons are putinto cells and if such cells are close together they are grouped into subcells.

o Layers can now be specified with a * for all layers, as in other modules withlayer selection

· 3D-PEC T-Gate mode:

o Accuracy has been enhanced by considering opposite edge bias during biascalculation. Up untill now the opposite edge shift was only considered in the doseadjustment step. In addition the bias shift steps are allowed to be half of theIsodose Grid, as long as the resulting shapes are still on that grid!



· Rule-OPC

o Has been enhanced by a Pre-Process tab with Boolean operations betweendifferent layers of the input layout. This allows improved preservation of thehierarchy during processing, as the Boolean operations do not requireintermediary layouts with reduced hierarchy.

o In the GUI the ‘Bias Angle’ option has been improved. Lookup tables are noweditable from the panel preview. The Edit button has been removed. GUI updatefor angle depended bias: two modes for the angle representation have beenadded : “360" and "90". The default mode is "360". In this mode angles can bevaried 0-360. In the simplified "90" mode angles varied 0-90.

· EXTRACT Module:

o The Cell list in the EXTRACT module for file-based data was previously notsorted in the field order Field numbering is now created differently to easesorting in cell instance option within Extract and EXPORT modules.

o Extract module dialog now has Keep region layer check box. Default is OFF.When check box is ON during extract, layers which were used for regiondefinition will not be deleted from the output. If Layer is not selected inLayer(s) selection , but selected in Region Layer and Keep region layer is ONthen this layer will be part of output.

· EXPORT, METROLOGY, E-BEAM; FRACTURE and EXTRACT Modules:

oRegion selections and measurement lines now have labels in the viewer andmodules using the select region option. This label contains the ‘Name’parameter, which can be edited in the region/measurement table. When newregions/measurement lines are created, the ‘Name’ is generated automatically(R1, R2 etc. for the regions, and L1, L2 etc. for the lines).

· GenJobDeck improvements:

o Substrate size units were incorrect. Changed to either inch.

o Options to fill screen or minimize display has been added.

· The MAPPING module now has three columns: Layer Old, Layer New and Alias.

o Layer (old) Column displays the "old" layer names

o Layer (new) Column gives the option to set a new layer name

oAlias Column gives the option to add a "comment" to the layer

o Because the new "Alias" field has been added, the old version BEAMER can nolonger load the newer version LEDB (version 3.12).

· VARIABLES:

o A variable can now have default values, e.g.: writing %beta(25.0)% instead ofonly %beta% in the PEC menu in a flow adds the variable beta to the listincluding a default of 25 micron. Default variables re-edited in the flow willoverwrite old defaults. If a variable values is edited in the "User Flow Parameter"

39Release Version


dialog these values will remain. Subsequent edit of the defaults in the flow has noeffect!

o Variables, e.g. %x% can now be entered in a loop dialog as an entry. Then theyappear in the "Edit Variables ..." dialog. A comma separated list of values isallowed. It will be inserted on the fly during loop execution.

o When variables are defined which refer to filename in the Variable dialogadditional file browse dialog is available.For variables which refer to layername additional layer selection dialog isavailable when valid input layout is detected.

o Variables inside user-flow will be propagated to upper level with the samevariable name by default.

o Variable handling and usage of functions have been improved.

· A new expression function check_string_contains() has been added to the IF module.Input: two strings or variable and string. Example: check_string_contains("%x%","pec"),if the value of variable %x% (can be a layer name) contains the string "pec" the rightflow branch of the "IF" will be executed, otherwise the left branch. Also new is theexpression function check_layer_contains() to the IF module. Input: two strings orvariable and string. E.g. check_layer_contains("%x%","pec"): this is a specialization ofthe check_string_contains() function that checks if the layer-name or -alias contain thespecified string.

· VIEWER:

o Manual measurement using the mouse the feature angle is now displayed in themeasurement.

o Measure lines can be adjusted, a right click on the end of a measure line unfixesthis end of the measure line, so that a further measurement is possible.

o From BEAMER 5.4.0 a VIEWER Install package (tar.gz) is built for the Linuxplatfforms. (For Windows platforms this has been available for a long time).

o The Zoom Control for the work space (process flow area) includes the followingkey features:

CRTL + for zoom in CTRL - for zoom outCTRL 0 for zoom reset

· Ctrl+MouseWheel on the flow canvas: zoom in/out the flow modules. On Windows 10and Linux platforms middle mouse button can be used for panning the flow, similar tousing the scroll bars.

· The hierarchy engine has been improved to handle small non-Manhattan arrays of thecells with good hierarchy, i.e. containing a large array.

· The hierarchy engine has been improved and is now also able to handle the main cellhierarchically.



· The Save to library dialog has new comment field. This allow users to create commentsfor the user-flows. The check box gives the ability to select between

o Show the comment, if the user-flow is imported and

o Don't show the comment, if the user-flow is imported

· The option in the View menu: Use Manhattan lines has been improved. Now it’spossible to adjust the lines, the curves are slightly rounded and during moving themodules the Manhattan connections are shown. Saving the flow with using theManhattan lines creates flows which could not be loaded with the old version. Switchingback to the old line style allows to load flows from BEAMER versions before 5.3.0.

· Nested flows are now supported in the Flow Library (flows are now always expanded).Library flows now also correctly load variables when dropped.

· CRTL+N opens a new flow in BEAMER.

· Module flows or parts of flows may be collapsed to subflows without having to add themto a library.

· On flattening a subflow, the background color is changed to light grey and the name ofthe subflow is shown in the top right corner of the flow area.

Changes

· PEC:SR Minimum Feature Size log entry is now shown only when Short RangeCorrection is activated.

· The binary limit for representation of pattern data has been enlarged to 45 bit. Thismeans that patterns with larger dimensions can be processed, or the pattern resolutioncan be more accurate. The previous limit was 40 bit.

· The hierarchy engine has been improved and is now also able to handle the main cellhierarchically.

· The LEDB Export-/Import has been modified so as not to create automatically a HPAindex structure. (HPA – High Performance Access – permits fast extraction from largelayouts). This assures that the original order of elements defined by GDSII import orFracturing is preserved through the LEDB format.

NOTE: this modification may influence run-time and pattern order.

· Extract and Export modules: The Cell list in the Extract module for filed-based data waspreviously not sorted in the field order Field numbering is now created differently toease sorting in cell instance option within Extract and Export modules. Where thenumber of main fields is known the number of digits will be calculated. Exports withoutthis information will get at least 4 digits for field numbering. Field_1 old style becomesField_0001. The sort order of the fields shown in the Extract/Export Cell dialog are nowsorted in numerical sequence (as they are in the Viewer Tree view).

Solved Issues

41Release Version


· In Linux packages the mapping module layer information was only being checked uponfirst execution, and would not update if layer information was changed. The mappingmodule now rechecks layer information and updates properly when rerun.

· Linux: Now when a user presses the "add.." button, the dialog for choosing directoryopens in the user home directory.

· During execution of a Bias with a huge softframe on a pattern caused errors which havebeen solved.

· Loop nodes in subflows connected to an input node now work correctly

· The measure height check box option on the layer page of visual-Job was not storedcorrectly.

· The issue that in rare cases BEAMER freezes during copy/paste of modules is resolved.

· IMPORT: Keep Order of Elements function of the IMPORT module did not alwaysfunction correctly. This has been fixed. In case of using multiple threads the polygonvalidation influenced the element order and to avoid this behavior, the import of GDS,TXL, DXF and CIF is set to single threaded if the check box Keep Order of Elements isswitched on. This has a slight influence on performance.

· When flattening a subflow within a subflow, the contained subflow was not reset,leading to problems during execution. Hierarchical flows are now reset whencopied/flattened.

· Importing a DXF or DWG file with Load Text Elements check box enabled causedBEAMER to crash. Now, however, this problem has been solved.

· On Windows systems zooming into the layout very deep the pick operation become verysluggish and the Viewer partially froze. X This problem has been resolved.

· VIEWER: Color by cell mode now works correctly for all patterns.

· There had been some drawing problem between print preview and printing. This wasfixed.

· The NOT operation:o On a large number of arrayed cells could have lasted a long time. This occurred

only if the number of rows*cols > 2^31. This has been resolved.

1.7 v5.3

1.7.1 v5.3.4

Some changes have been made in the various formatters (JEOL, GPF, ADVANTEST,CRESTEC and ELIONIX). This information is documented in New Features in the variousexposure tool Formatter Notes. This document is included in the package. Open thisdocument as follows ...



Solved issues

· Loading effect dose scaling in PEC was applied twice by mistake. This happened incase that a long range tile converged earlier than expected.

· The handling of non-orthogonal arrays in case of Manual/Floating Fields hasbeen improved. (A crash which may have occurred when using Array Compaction orSubfield Compactions should no longer happen).

· In BEAMER 5.3 a bug in the hierarchical handling was introduced. In rare casewhen instances of an array overlap and this array is overlapped with another feature,the overlap was not handled correctly. This issue has been resolved.

1.7.2 v5.3.3

Solved issues

· To run PEC additional licenses for other modules (i.e. GRID) are no longer required.

· The import of certain NURBS / spline curves from DXF files could fail to produce thecorrect geometry. This problem has been corrected.

· The error handling of TXL has been improved to provide the proper message: "Error:Cell Bounding Box minimum X-coordinate exceeds 40bit range. Please contactGenISys to check if this can be extended".

1.7.3 v5.3.2

Solved issues

· Array handling during long range PEC could have caused missing parts of thepatterns. This has been solved.

· Due to grid-snapping during frame/bulk oversize – undersize separation on non-Manhattan polygons, nano-gaps might be introduced in shape PEC. This problem hasbeen resolved.

· On performing Corner-PEC on complex non-Manhattan polygons, wrong doseassignments could appear. This was fixed.

1.7.4 v5.3.1

Solved issues

· Pattern Integrity Issue :: In BEAMER 5.3.0 a bug in the hierarchy handling (usingHEAL for example) was introduced. The issue occurred if a reference with a 90, 180or 270 degree rotation or a mirror existed, and if this reference contained less than 50

43Release Version


elements overlapping with another reference or a geometry and this reference did nothas an overlap. This issue was solved.

· On performing Corner-PEC on complex non-Manhattan polygons, wrong doseassignment could occur. This was fixed.

· A problem in 3D Edge PEC where an internal edge of a fractured shape was treatedas an external edge is fixed.

· GPF Fracture: Triangles with a very small height / base and a very long slope couldexceed the maximum slope (become too shallow). This issue has been resolved.

· Export EBPG: The Diagonal Line Compaction" option in Feature Sorting in Field hasbeen improved.

o The placement of tilted line gratings did not consider the repetition alongthe line in the X-direction properly. This led to misplaced shapes overmultiple X-rows.

o The Subfield Calculation and Optimization did not consider the repetitionalong the line in X-direction Properly. This led to invalid Subfieldpositioning and errors in Cview. Both issues have been resolved.

· VisualJob now properly handles the case where no holders of a specific holder typeare defined in the configuration file, for example when no MASK holders are defined.At least one HOLDER is still required in the configuration file.

· A new parameter is available which can be added to the configuration file:PREF_SEPARATE_JDI_THRESHOLD. This controls whether Shot ModulationTables are written to separate files, or including within the JDF file.

· When opening a matrix view of 1D data and double clicking on single view, thestandalone 1D view showed a wrong 2D control panel. The new standalone 1D viewshows the correct 1D control panel.

Enhancements

· VIEWER has been improved to display additional information shown in the status bar(mouse position) and referring to the current coordinate origin.



1.7.5 v5.3.0

Enhancements

· New Modules

o A new module Rule-OPC has been implemented.

o A new module GenJobDeck which works similarl to Visual-Job and theMerge module, but it only focuses on combining/editing input layout(s) withthe help of array-subarray hierarchy has been implemented.The final outputis one big layout.

o Import of textual and binary STL geometry files into BEAMER has beenimplemented. The features in the imported geometry files are sliced intolayers based on their position along the z-axis and flattened during theimport.

· PEC

o The Cancel operation in all PEC modules has been improved and nowreacts much faster.

o Enhanced 3D PEC operation by minimizing the impact of the LR grid on thedose assignments yielding symmetric results.

o Enhanced SR fracturing by consideration of Min Figure Size and FracturingGrid.

o 3D PEC: In the T-Gate Mode dialog it is now possible to export the contrastcurve as a text file. In addition for the PEC, Shape-PEC, 3D and Corner-PEC modules in the Advanced tab correction settings involving tables, thesetables can now be exported as text files.

o 3D PEC T-Gate Mode: Accuracy has been enhanced by consideringopposite edge bias during bias calculation. Previously the opposite edgeshift was only considered in the dose adjustment step. In addition, the biasshift steps are allowed to be half of the Isodose Grid, as long as theresulting shapes are still on that grid.

o Laser 3D PEC now features a Flare correction addressing an additionaldiffuse dose deposition. Activated by setting the flare range (FWHM) andthe relative flare energy contribution (strength).

o Shape PEC: A new feature Bias Type in the Geometry section of theAccuracy tab has been implemented. The default behavior All Angle thatintroduces perpendicular connecting segments between biased edges hasbeen extended by 2 modes: Manhattan only and X-Architecture whichrestrict the connecting edges to the specified orientations.

o 3D Surface PEC now features the Surface Definition Type: AbsoluteThicknessFromLayer. This means that no entries are required inthe 3D assignment table. The layer number will directly be interpreted as thetarget resist heights in micron.

o FDA module has a third Assignment Type: Add. In this mode, the relativedose value will be added to the old value of specific layer in the table.

· EXPORT

45Release Version


o GPF export in Python: Settings that are dependent on other settings are nowupdated in the case where previous relevant settings are modified. Thismimics the behavior of the GUI Export dialog.

o Export JEOL: Subfield offset and subfield fracturing are now available in theManual Field Ordering mode.v30

o Export Advantest: Shot filling for a sloped pattern feature has beenoptimized to produce a minimum number of shots.

o Export Advantest: Log files names have been improved by adding date andtime.

o Export Advantest has been improved to now also support CP cells withtolerance.

o Export Advantest has been improved to allow Tolerance Values for full CPStencils. Dose adaption according to the area difference is NOT applied.This is different from variable CP assignment.

o Export Advantest: Detection of circular full CP-Stencils has been improved.

o Export Elionix has been upgraded to support the CAR format.

o Export HIMT: Updated Export / Import libraries for HIMT format. ParallelExport with unicode support is now possible. (Import does not yet supportmultiple module execution).

o Export: Added flattening hierarchy option to Oasis, Textlib, dxf and cifexport. By entering a positive integer into the parameter field the formatterwill remove the specified hierarchy levels of the layout. Equivalent to theexisting GDS II hierarchy process.

· Import/Export

o BEAMER now supports the importing of curved elements, particularly circlesfor certain formats. Circles are treated differently than polygonal shapesduring various pattern operations.

· Modules

o The Extract algorithm has been improved. Extract will now try to extractparts of arrays as arrays for options ‘touching’ and ‘within’. ‘Clip’ alreadytried to keep parts of arrays thus rendering this option significantly faster fornon-overlapping extraction regions. However, the ‘Touching’ option willcheck if extract regions are closer than one base element size and use thesame handling as if extract regions were overlapping which in return will slowdown the process with large arrays significantly.

o Manhattan fracturing has been improved and now includes the slope of theoriginal shape to correct the fracturing direction more accurately, checkswhether extract regions are closer than one base element size and uses thesame handling as if extract regions were overlapping which in return will slowdown the process with large arrays significantly.



o For the Fracture module and Export modules with Manual Field Ordering(Field Placement), the table of the selected regions can now be exported(and imported) as a text file.

o Importing OASIS files is now much faster.

o The Replace module has a new option Replace repeated geometries bycells, which creates cells out of geometries and inserts a reference instead.This is the first step towards a hierarchical detection.

o In the Loop dialog the delete cell, row, and column now works on allselected cells/rows and columns.

· Visual-Job

o Users can now import JDF files with the button "Import Jobdeck" on themain page. This import will overwrite the current jobdeck project. When theimported EOS or PATH is not found in the configuration file, it takes onefrom the configuration file as default.

o A new configuration option was added to provide a margin or allowance forbeam current variation when checking the range of doses which can beexposed.

o If multiple Jobdecks are created inside a jobdeck-project, the VIEWER willopen up with a multi-view mode to show up all the generated JDF files.

o Generic jobdeck results are always dose corrected. The final output is notdose corrected (it doesn't have dose classification) ONLY if the inputlayout(s) is not corrected AND no other than x1 dose has been assigned toany layout.

o In Visual-Job, an option for MACHINE_MAXIMUM_FREQUENCY of 12MHz has been added.

· General

o An environmental variable for Hand back license GENISYS_LICENSE_HAND_BACK has been added. This overrides theProperties License Manage "Hand license back" setting.

o An option: Use Manhatten Lines Connection has been added to the Viewmenu. This is an alternative to diagonal lines as a connection in processflows.

o A separate Browser is now implemented into all GenISys solutions whichincludes the manual. This browser is independent from any os-dependentbrowsing engine and produces a similar result for all available platforms.

o Hierarchical operations are now faster for cases where arrays have to besplit into sub-arrays. These operations had been executed sequentially andthis limitation is resolved. Now all operations are done in parallel if thenumber of threads is sufficient. Furthermore, the cell/array overlap handlingwas improved. In the case of a cell with only a few figures (<50) whosebounding box overlaps with the bounding box of another cell or array, acheck for actual overlap is implemented. If there is no actual overlap the

47Release Version


hierarchy can be preserved. Such cells/arrays were always previouslyflattened.

o Significant performance improvements for Boolean operations for largelayouts (> 20 GB OASIS) has been achieved

o The BEAMER Properties Dialog has been improved to also provide theConfiguration Path information: "Configuration for all Users" <pathinformation> NOTE: the <path information> is not editable and intended forinformational purposes only.

Changes

· Export

o Export GPF: The Manual and Floating Field export has been improved tomore strictly consider the selected Field Overlap specified in the MultipassTab. The definition of a Field Overlap of sufficient size (e.g. the SubfieldSize) will prevent the specified Sequence placement position rectanglesfrom being clipped at field boundaries. The conversion of circles tosequences has been improved for throughput. Equivalent circular structuresare now converted to sequence only once, buffered and repeatedlyexported. NOTE: this modification will change existing results.

o Export Advantest: In rare cases, the Manhattan fracturing option did notconsider the base/height of the triangular parts of trapezoids in relation tothe minimum shape height resulting in too slim shapes being produced. Thishas been resolved and the number of shots has been reduced. NOTE: themodification will change existing behavior.

o Export JEOL: The J51 Export Dialog has been limited to provide only NoCompaction and Array Compaction Feature Sorting in Field option. Inaddition, the Compaction Region is always set to SubfieldSize and thereforeno longer selectable. The J51 export always uses "Fixed Subfield Traversalin X and Y" and other Modi are not supported.

o During Elionix export if the number of layers is larger than 16, a warningmessage appears. This is related to the number of dose classes.

o The fracturing algorithm for parallelogram shaped quadrangles (tiltedgratings, zoneplates, waveguides) has become more efficient. Due to theimprovement, the interior parallelogram's area is maximized. NOTE: themodification will change existing behavior.

o Due to improvements in the extraction procedure, file sizes with 'within/touching' options decreases. Now full arrays are extracted instead offlattening the whole layout.

o BEAMER uninstall now no longer deletes the configuration files of BEAMERor JOBDECK from the .GenISys folder. Additionally, the environmentvariables are also not deleted.

Solved issues

· PEC



o PEC: A problem whereby the PEC dialog would crash BEAMER if a 0 or"empty value" for beta was entered has been fixed.

o There was an error in hierarchy engine for LR PEC which led to crashes incase of arrays with pitches similar to the proximity effect range. This wasfixed.

o Lateral Development Correction in 2D PEC was not working properly. Thedensities for the biases were not correct. This problem has been corrected.

o On performing a lateral development correction on a pre-fractured layout,many unwanted additional points appeared. This was fixed.

o 3D PEC Table only showed 2 entries when obtaining the height from a layername mode. Now it shows all available entries.

o On editing a Gaussian PSF in the PEC module and having the intermediatevalue 0.0 in the Beta [um] field the GUI froze. This was fixed.

o PSF Import did not parse the stack completely to insert in the 2D archivefile. This has been resolved.

o There may have been inaccurate correction results in the case of 3D-PECfor topographic substrates if both involved PSFs need special mid- rangehandling. This was fixed.

o In the case of OASIS layouts with zero or negative pitch arrays, theproximity effect correction results may have been incorrect. This was fixed.

o Determination of automatic Long Range min.fig.size (MFS) yielded toocoarse values for proximity functions with very high eta values. This hasbeen solved.

· Export

o When exporting VEP format using multipass or floating fields, the layoutextent is optimized to cover all the field. Negative field coordinates can nolonger occur.

o Import/Export module support relative paths, even inside loops.

o Export Elionix: Could not export a file when a target folder contains 2-bytecharacters (Japanese characters). This has been resolved.

o Export HIMT: A rounding error in HIMT export driver which caused extradata to be produced has been fixed.

o Export HIMT: A problem which may have occurred when using Soft Stitchingresulting in wrong positioning of stripes has been resolved.

o Export Crestec: An error where circles and lines got displaced during exportwith curved fracture feature turned on has been fixed.

o When exporting the image view to png, it should export the view exactly as itis displayed and this includes any measurements made by the user. Note:This also affects LAB and ProSEM. The Image View now also draws anymeasurements when exporting to png. Before, even if the user made manualmeasurements (line, reference, circle), these where not drawn with theexported image.

· General

49Release Version


o In rare cases the EBPG/IWFL pattern viewer produced misplaced, missingshape information. The effect occurred only for strongly left-tilted, slimshapes. This issue has been resolved.

o In the Metrology display, parameter names are correctly displayed.

o The E-Beam module did not log in case of processing in image mode. Thiswas fixed.

o In Visual-Job, an error in handling certain combinations of configurationoptions for JEOL 9300 & 9500 systems has been fixed.

o When using the Replace module with mode: Cell Replaced by Layout, theinput layout dose classification got lost. Geometries always received dose 1for all. This fix brings back the lost dose classification.

o Grid Module: An error which may have occurred in 5.2.x on smoothingpolygons under certain conditions has been resolved.

o Previously when unchecking a row in the loop node and running it in parallelLoop mode, the row previous to the unchecked row was calculated twice (ormore depending on how many rows were unchecked). This is now fixed sothat unchecked rows are no longer included.

o Deleting the Splitter within a process flow could have caused unexpectedconnections. Where connections are not consistent inside of a process flowfile, these connections are eliminated.

o Problems arising from CR/LF (enter/line feed) on Unix systems whenreading contrast curve values from CSV files have been fixed.

o On switching to a Linux console by ssh (e.g. ssh hornet) without X-forwarding (ssh -X hornet) and starting BEAMER, a segmentation faultoccurred without any information about the cause. Now BEAMER (and LAB)no longer crash but an error message and an error status code are issuedwhen the initialization of the graphical user interface fails.

o E-Beam Simulation problem with Shot simulation was fixed. Interaction ofBlur with Beam step size could show neg. dose values in transition areas.

o Applying Boolean operations (Minus, AND, OR, XOR) on large patternscaused BEAMER to run out of internal memory. This issue has beenresolved.

o Due to improvements in the extraction procedure, file sizes withwithin/touching options decreases. Now full arrays are extracted instead offlattening the whole layout.

o Pick function: When zooming in quite deeply and picking certain polygons,the pick could issue invalid vertex information. This issue has beenresolved.

o The Hand back license feature did not work correctly in the auto mode. Thishas been resolved.

o On Linux systems the startup directory mode jumped to the directory onelevel higher. Now correct.



1.8 v5.2

1.8.1 v5.2.2

Enhancements

· The ADVANTEST Export Parameter Dialog has been modified to allow field sizesup to 2mm. To activate this change, the line # @MAXIMUM_FIELD_SIZE =2000.0 should be entered in the ADVANTESTBEF20.ini configuration file otherwisethe default remains 32µm. The mainfield size default settings in X and Y thenautomatically change to 2000.

· Import GPF: For triangular shapes the GPF import driver has been improved tointerpret shape types and outline more accurately. Previously self-intersectionshapes could occur.

· Export GPF: The GPF Export Driver has been improved to preserve "Single Line"pattern area more accurately. The term "Single Line" refers to tilted RectangularShapes with a length >> BSS and a Width < BSS.

NOTE: this modification will change existing results.

· The pattern viewer has been improved to react more agile on user interaction.

NOTE: The improvement will not improve drawing speed, but responsiveness forlarge field pattern data.

Changes

· Export Crestec: The file name and CZ description has been added to the CrestecCCC file.

· Export GPF: Show Writing Order and Show Shots cannot be used together. Thisbehavior has been changed for performance reasons.

· Export GPF: The positional accuracy of ARRAYS (repeated Elements) has beenimproved.

· The Elionix SCON export driver has been modified and does not generate the threefield-related dose tags SI, SJ and ST which are no longer supported.

· The number of available dose classes is now in compliance with the SCON DoseClass limits of 1-256.

· Symmetric Fracturing: Now only snapped and transformed structures will beexamined for symmetry.

· Export module has been improved for syntactical correctness. Narrow tilted lines(width < 1BSS) are now maintained. NOTE: due to these modifications, exposureresults for gratings may be influenced.

· Visual-Job

51Release Version


oA new toolbar icon has been added to the Viewer portion of visual-Job, whichtoggles between "Edit" mode and the tradition viewer functions of "Pick andMeasure". This changes the behavior of mouse clicks in the following way:

o "Edit" -> On:

§ VIEWER works in visual-Job mode:

§ Single_Left click -> if there is an array cell beneath and this array is selected,select that cell (as it behaves right now); otherwise nothing happens (no shift).

§ Double_Left click -> select the array beneath to make it the active array, *** ifthere are subarrays, explore to the bottom level. ***

§ Single_Right click -> popup menu (as it behaves right now).

§ Double_Right click -> select the array beneath to make it the active array, *** ifthere are subarrays, explore to the top level. ***

o "Edit" -> OFF:

§ VIEWER behaves as it is in BEAMER.

oA new configuration file parameter has been added: PREF_LINE_ENDINGS, withthree options: AUTO, WINDOWS or LINUX. This controls the line-endingcharacters at the end of each line in the generated JDF, SDF, and JDI files. ForWINDOWS, the CR/LF characters are used, for LINUX, the LF character, and forAUTO, the line endings of the host system running Visual-Job will be used. If thisoption is not in the configuration file, AUTO is the default mode.

o The correct number of local alignment marks is now displayed for the two routines,CHIPAL (4) and WFR3M (3).

o The local alignment mode now correctly defaults to no local alignment for bothCHIPAL and WFR3M alignment routines (CHIPAL 0 or WFR3M 9).

o The correct number of chip alignment marks is now displayed in the PatternDetails page for both CHIPAL and WFR3M alignment modes.

oA new parameter in Panel Layer: JOBNAME has been added. This is a parameterof the JOB command in jdf file. When editing this parameter in the GUI (in multilayer case), the last edited value is maintained, which means the last valid inputvalue will reset all the JOBNAME parameters of the layers having the same "JDFFile Name".

o If there are any empty layers in a jobdeck during Visual-Job generation, the user isnow given a message and can choose how to proceed, since empty layers are notallowed by JEOL specifications.

o For layout and JDI file names, the full path file name is now displayed in the logwindow.

o Special characters are now supported for chip file names and schedule files. JDFfile names do not allow special characters so special characters are filtered out.

oWhen the Substrate folder is not available, the configuration initialization does notoccur. An error/warning message will pop up.



o The configuration option MACHINE_OPTION_LOADER has new optionAUTO2, for a 2-cassette loader.

o The assign dose dialog has been improved to better handle the many options andpossible errors. Erroneous entries will now be highlighted and the OK button willbe greyed-out until the error is resolved.

oGenerating a jobdeck will now always show the main jobdeck page with the filegeneration log displayed.

oHandling of invalid data entries in many fields has been improved.

o If there are any empty layers in a jobdeck during generation, the user is now givena message and can choose how to proceed, since empty layers are not allowed by JEOL specifications.

o Error handling for illegal or out-of-bounds entries has been improved.

Solved issues

· In LR PEC fracturing in rare occasions for very sharp triangles fracturing resulted inillegal shapes. This problem has been solved.

· A bug in SR pre-fracturing was fixed. Due to clipping the input figures to processingtiles sub resolution figures might have been induced in rare scenarios. This resultedin unusual dose correction results inside a loop on full pattern and small regions.

· On applying 3D-TGate-PEC to certain layouts or layout parts, there may have beenwrong layer assignments leading to wrong dose assignments. This was fixed.

· In 3D surface PEC the Resist Contrast Parameter Work Range was incorrectlyapplied twice when Lateral Development selected. This generated too low doseassignments: the impact was more severe when the Work Range was smaller. Thisissue has been resolved.

· Using a variable in the single line width field on the advanced page of the PECcauses an error after reimporting the flow. This has been resolved.

· Export GPF: For the Format version 1.43 the feature "Diagonal Line Compaction"was disabled and not fully available. This has been resolved.

· Export GPF: Using GPF shot display and setting the layout origin to the center of thelayout caused the shots to be wrongly positioned. This issue has been resolved.

· Export GPF : Sequence export in subresolution mode caused additional unnecessarypattern information to be generated.

· Export Elionix: In the Elionix export module the region layer for manual fields wasused even if fixed fields had been chosen. This issue is resolved.

· Lateral Development Correction in 2D PEC was not working properly. The densitiesfor the biases were not correct. Now they are.

53Release Version


· Importing CIF files from BEAMER and VIEWER including simple geometries on(fast) multi thread systems could result in different views. This issue has beenresolved.

· CIF files were handled differently in BEAMER and VIEWER due to multithreadsynchronization. This issue has been resolved.

o *.jdfout files are temporary files and are not deleted by the windows system.

· Visual-Job

o The calculated shot spacing was not always correctly displayed, especially for the

JEOL 6300. This has been corrected.

oWhen using Virtual Chip Marks (Local Alignment modes V1 or V4), the necessary

CHIPAL command will now be correctly output to the SDF file.

o In case of a wrong parameter in the Visual-Job configuration INI file, an errormessage is issued and the other options are still loaded.



1.8.2 v5.2.1

Changes

· Change to 3D T-Gate PEC overdose handling. The overdose will only be applied to

a frame (blur, fracturing size). The bulk part of the gate layer gets just the dose

sufficient to clear the resist. This lowers writing time and enhances contrast in the

critical adjacent areas.

· v-Job

o v-Job clears now all arrays and barcode upon using the "Clear All" option.

o In the visual-Job module. "Create New Array" window can show up pattern

name with German ‘umlaut’ characters.

o Dose assignment in v-Job for values below 1 triggered error messages for each

non-valid value like 0.0. This has been fixed.

o In the v-Job navigation tree, it is now possible to right-click on the specific

layer id in the navigation tree and choose "Duplicate Layer", to create a new

layer which is a duplicate of the selected layer.

o When V1/V4 for local alignment mode is selected, the Measure Height option

will be by default on and is no longer editable.

o In v-Job, display of the substrate is improved - it is now shown only as an

outline (not filled), it will not be identified in a pick operation, and it will retain

its shape when display mode "Chip Outline" is selected.

o User comments in v-Job are now formatted better to retain formatting when

possible. Comment lines longer than 79 characters wide will be split to multiple

lines.

o v-Job icon have been updated in the BEAMER GUI.

o When editing a jobdeck in v-Job, if the v-job icon in the Beamer toolbar was

clicked, the open instance of visual-job closed without warning or message and

the open jobdeck was lost. This is fixed.

55Release Version


o v-Job has gotten some small tweaks to the dialog regarding the chip and text

loading behavior. These values now get properly updated.

Solved issues

· Applying PEC on array with geometries inside a layer which should not have been

corrected and having a pitch smaller than 0.1 times the beta range could have

resulted in a duplicate area in the resulting layout: a large rectangle covering the

full array could have been added. This issue has been resolved.

· Export General

o For all export drivers the Region Traversal mode Meander Y had a bug, which

could result in missing data: this issue is resolved. This bug was introduced with

the introduction of the Meander Y Region Traversal mode.

o Pattern duplication during interleave export has been resolved by tweaking the

algorithms with a focus on large interleave sizes. For best results it is suggested

to keep the interleave sizes in the regime of range of ~4 times the interleave

element size. Some warning messages have been introduced.

o Curved and LRFT fracturing wasn't working properly on dot arrays resulting in

non-optimal fracturing results. This issue has been fixed.

o In the case where Interleaving + Extra Field was selected in the Export module

without Multipass (1 pass), the field sorting resulted in two passes through the

entire pattern by first exposing the main fields then returning to the start of the

pattern to expose all of the interleaved Extra fields. Since a significant time

could occur between the two passes the resulting stitch performance could be

potentially worse, the opposite of what Interleave + Extra Field was intended

to improve. This behavior has been changed for single pass writing to write the

Extra fields in line with the main pattern and also allow the user to select the

Field Traversal Type in the Advanced tab to better optimize the field order for

the given application.



o The pattern writing options Multipass and Overlap are now mutually exclusive;

only one of these options may be activated for a pattern.

o In the case where Interleaving was selected in the Export module without

Multipass (1 pass), the field sorting would result in a standard X oriented

Meander, regardless of any Field Traversal selection by the user. For larger

patterns requiring a number of fields to expose this field sorting was less than

optimal for some applications such as gratings or waveguides. This behavior has

been changed for single pass writing to allow the user to select the Field

Traversal Type in the in the Advanced tab to better optimize the field order for

the given application.

57Release Version


1.8.3 v5.2.0

Enhancements

· 3D PEC

o T-Gate mode : BEAMER 5.2.0 now features a new 3D PEC T-Gate mode.

The previously recommended mode for T-Gate applications 3D-Edge is still

available. The T-Gate mode requires separate contrast curves for the bi-layer

resist stack. Based on this information exposure doses are computed that

ensure complete resist removal inside the shapes. The edge placement is taken

care of by computing the lateral development and applying a local bias.

o 3D PEC Dialog has been modified. SR PEC is supported by 3D-Edge and

Topographic substrate. T-Gate includes SR correction. 3D Surface is LR only;

the switch has been removed.

o 3D Surface PEC: Long range backscattering increases the absorbed energy in

the remaining resist, i.e., the nominally non-exposed resist. 3D Surface PEC

now issues an error message if this absorbed energy exceeds the minimum

exposure dose plus the tolerance. By default this absorbed energy can be

exceeded by 1% without an error. A higher tolerance can be defined in the 3D

Advanced menu tab.

o 3D Surface PEC now supports the target definition by absolute remaining resist

thicknesses.

· PEC General

o For LR PEC the Isodose grid size and minimum figure size cutting behavior has

been improved. The isodose grid size was not taken into account if the short

range correction was included. The newly implemented algorithm improves

shot filling. It avoids off-grid fracture results as much as possible and tries to

push the sometimes unavoidable off-grid elements to inner areas of the layout.

o In the PEC dialog a legend indicating the Range in the PSF view has been

implemented.



o The progress bar for all PEC operations has been improved as well as the

reaction time for canceling a running PEC operation.

o GDS error reporting has been improved for the case that illegal coordinates are

present in the GDS file.

· General

o Bias and Size modules have an additional Extent Tab with the following 3

options: "According to bias": this is the previous behavior, "Automatic": keep

the old extent by negative bias; grow by positive bias, always symmetric, so

that the center is maintained and "Fixed": keep the old extent regardless of

negative or positive bias.

NOTE: This changes existing behavior!

o A Replace Module has been created in which cells can be replaced by a layout

or bounding box, or the geometry of layers can be replaced by a bounding box.

o A Comment module has been introduced. It cannot be connected to any other

module. Applying a double click on the comment control opens a pop up menu

on the module anchor to edit the dialog.

o The File menu now has the option to export a flow as Python script. This is an

initial version for simple flows without user modules and control modules with

the exception of the SPLIT module. COMMENT modules will also be ignored.

o The Filter module now has Import and Export buttons. Filters can be saved to a

TXT file and loaded from it. During the Export to a text file all filters from the

module are saved to one file. During the Import all current filters in the dialog

are deleted and filters from the text file are loaded.

o The Loop dialog has been redesigned for clarity and ease of use. Note that the

text file format for the Import/Export functions has been changed with only a

single Boolean enable value per row to match the format of the variable table.

59Release Version


o In IF control node expressions, check_layer_exists and check_node_exists now

take single quoted string arguments rather than double quoted arguments.

Strings in that position also no longer have to be literals.

o In many places where formulas are used, the inquiry expressions available in IF

expressions can now also be used.

§ Variables as strings should be enclosed within single apostrophes for

example, check_layer_exists('%layer%').

o The check_layer_exists expression function and the check_layer_exist Python

function now accept layer specifications containing wildcards, as the extract

module does. Examples: "7(*)" can now be used to check for data existing on

Layer 7 with any datatype, and "30-32" will check for data on any layer

between 30 and 32.

o Import and Export modules: Right-clicking on executed Import or Export

modules opens a context menu from which Open File Location can be used to

display the respective selected directory. This is implemented only for

Windows as Linux has no default file browser.

o Module Icons in a BEAMER Flow now grow in width to accommodate longer

labels to up to twice the standard icon size. This allows for more readable

flows.

o Global Viewer: Zooming-in on a particular position has been improved and this

position now remains centered.

o In the File/Properties menu "Create PNG file to export file directory" is

available. If this function is activated, during an export a PNG file is written to

the same folder as the pattern, and it has the same name however with the

extension PNG.

o Flatten Flow Library module replaces a library module in a flow with the

contents of that library module. Execute this either by right-clicking on the

flow library on the canvas and choosing „Flatten the Flow Library Content“



from the contextual menu, or drag or double click a module from the flow

library while holding down the Ctrl key. If there are parameters inside the Flow

Library module, the parameters will be propagated to the same level of this

Flow Library module.

o If there is parameter defined inside the Flow Library module, the parameter

will be propagated to the same level of this Flow Library module.

o A new Keyboard Shortcuts option which opens a list of mouse and keyword

shortcuts in a browser has been added to the Help button.

o Recovery procedure after a crash has been expanded. The message: A

Recovery flow file has been found is issued. Users have the choice to load or

delete this file and the associated temporary files.

o As part of the install package for Linux a list of required libraries has been

added to the folder /share/doc/ with the name BEAMER_dependencies.txt.

· Import

o IMPORT Module: A warning is sent to the User when "Keep Order of

Elements" is enabled in the Import module and if the subsequent attached

modules will alter the original shape order. Applies to most formatters.

o Changing the file type in the import dialog is not allowed: in some cases it

worked correctly, in other cases it caused a crash. Now BEAMER issues an

error message in such cases.

· Export

o Processing speed for Exporting data using Field Ordering with either Manual or

Floating Fields for large dimensional layouts with many fields has been

improved.

o A new Feature Sorting option Random is available.

61Release Version


o Two new Region Traversal settings "SpiralOutwards" and “Random” are

available for most formatters: SpiralOutwards starts writing from the center

and spirals to the outer edges. Random exposes the regions in a random order.

The size and number of the Compaction Regions defines the degree of

localization

o Most Export modules and the Fracture module have been modified to reduce

the number of slivers and slim shapes. It is activated only if the Curved

Fracturing Mode is selected. The Smoothing tolerance is the minimum of the

BSS and the selected Tolerance Value for Circle/Ring detection. The

improvement will reduce the number of vertices and therefore changes the

original designed outline of shapes. This will lead to minor change of the

original edge position.

NOTE: The modification changes existing behavior.

· JEOL

o A new JEOL Jobdeck editor: visual-Job has been introduced.

· PEC

o When performing a Lateral Development Correction in PEC with negative bias

values, the fractures and layers are preserved. In the case of positive lateral

development biasing this is not possible. An appropriate warning in issued.

· General

o The release license and connect license behavior have slightly changed, the

user is now asked if he really wants to release the license, and he gets a

message after reconnecting.

o The optimizer result view has now a Close button instead of a Cancel button.

Changes



· PEC

o When performing a Lateral Development Correction in PEC with negative bias

values, the fractures and layers are preserved. In the case of positive lateral

development biasing this is not possible. An appropriate warning in issued.

· General

o The release license and connect license behavior have slightly changed, the user

is now asked if he really wants to release the license, and he gets a message

after reconnecting.

o The optimizer result view has now a Close button instead of a Cancel button.

Solved issues

· PEC

o The update behavior of the PSF view inside of the PEC dialog has been

improved. Previously a variable in any of the fields caused the view to be

empty. This is now handled correctly and the view is only empty if the variable

is relevant for the view.

o Corner PEC settings for the corner and edge regions are first determined, then

the FDA correction values are for the various regions are calculated. Corner

PEC reports now the resulting dose classes. In previous versions the dose

classes prior to multiplying with the FDA dose factors were issued.

o In the case of PEC corrected layouts containing polygons with thousands of

vertices, a problem in memory overflow fallback mechanism lead to PEC

module errors.

o SR PEC Error: In the rare case of a large layout extent and small alpha a “bad

numeric conversion positive overflow Error” could occur. This has been solved

by using 64bit integers in the specific hierarchy function.

63Release Version


o 3D PEC: When the specified original resist thickness was higher and not

exactly equal to the max. thickness in the contrast curve wrong doses for

shapes with target of max. remaining resist thickness occurred. This problem

has been solved.Exporting PEC-corrected IWFL files no longer cause an

‘Invalid Dose Class error’.

o FDA by region was only working for the default grid of 0.001 micron. This

problem has been resolved.

o For polygonal Shapes with multiple holes in rare cases the PEC algorithm

produced self-overlapping polygons using the new PEC fracturing algorithm.

This has been resolved.

o 3D Surface PEC using lat. development computed a wrong LR doseoptimization. This problem is resolved.

o 3D PEC - When Tool "Laser" is selected only 3D-PEC Mode "Surface" isavailable

o 3D Laser PEC Surface definition Type "Dose". Has been removed. In casedoses should be assigned to figures directly the FDA module should be used.

· General

o Fracture Module: Previously when setting the Field Ordering in the fracture

module to Floating, the Overlap Method in the Multipass panel would be

disabled. Yet after closing and reopening the dialog, the Overlap Method would

be enabled. This is now always disabled.

o Fracture module now works correctly with manual fields. Previously, manual

fields and the remaining fields were incorrectly sorted.

o Extract Module: Selecting a region and then zooming to it did not always

function correctly. Now it does.

o HEAL module: Heal per dose class set the dose values of single lines to 1.0.

This issue is resolved and the dose values are now maintained.



o IF Module: Erroneous formulas such as %()% when substituted into conditions

for the IF module could cause BEAMER to crash. Now an error warning is

issued.

o In a flow with XOR/AND/… modules connected to the first port of a SPLIT

module and the second port open, an error message "Input layout is missing"

was issued.

o GRID Module: The grid module smoothing did not remove all vertices with a

deviation smaller than the specified tolerance.

o Grid smoothing caused loses of geometry. For certain figures such a pentagons

grid smoothing caused parts of the structure to be removed. This problem has

been resolved.

o Loop Module: Merging patterns caused errors in the extent and depending on

the order, the extent could have been shrinked. This error has been resolved.

o Hierarch Processing: In case of layouts with a mix of cell arrays and primitive

arrays, the hierarchic processing may have failed to detect overlaps, which

could lead to wrong results. This has been fixed.

o Standalone VIEWER can now import Elionix files.

o Viewing of large flat layouts has been improved, especially after zooming.

o VIEWER for centos 7: Previously buttons that were assigned colors were just

white and could not be changed on centos 7.

o Using a variable inside the metrology dialog could cause a crash during editing

the dialog. This issue is resolved.

o Crashes in the PGP in sequences generated by BEAMER have been fixed.

o The text file format in the loop dialog for exporting and importing the loopparameters has been modified to allow layer lists; it now uses TAB charactersas the delimiter between the variable columns. The comments in an exportedLOOP variable file explain exact details.

o When using a user module with a relative path, the file path to be set to thedirectory of the flow library instead of the directory of the flow, where the user

65Release Version


module is used. This issue is resolved. (BEAMER 5.1.3) Flows created with aBEAMER Version with this defect need to be manually updated to avoid issue.

· Import

o Importing DXF files with large curved structures caused a memory allocation

error if the chosen tolerance of the curve was too fine. This memory error was

not the real physical limit, but a check to avoid memory swapping during

operations such a HEAL and BIAS even on small workstations. The check was

not helpful at this position. We now try to do this import and only create such

an error message if the physical limit is reached.

o During the spatial sorting of layout data with high pattern data volumes and

varying density in the coverage, elements could be lost. This problem has been

solved.

1.9 v5.1

1.9.1 v5.1.4

Changes

· The option symmetric fracturing failed in case of 90, 180, 270 degree rotation and mirrortransformations. This issue is resolved.In case of using curve fracturing and symmetric fracturing, the order of analysis has beenchanged. Now curve detection is first executed, and if no curve is detected the symmetryanalysis is done.

Solved issues

· While running a PEC with uniform clearing on patterns with large areas, like pads, an issue arosewhereby the internal processing fractured a pad and erroneously assign a lower dose to it. Thishas been resolved.

· Export Elionix SCON, C07 and C08: On reopening the Formatter/Export dialog, the field sizeand resolution was reset. This now operates correctly.

· Export Crestec: Exporting pattern data including narrow tilted lines having widths close to theBSS caused problems. This has been solved.

· When using the Fracture module with Multipass the result was not as expected. Now when usingMultipass with the Fracture module in combination with manual fields and with floating fields theresults are correct and consistent with that in the Export modules.



· In BEAMER, Properties, File Defaults Write protected flow directories can now be defined. Usethe Add or Delete buttons accordingly. When saving to protected directories the query: "Do youreally want to overwrite the file "..."? Yes/No pops up. If close is pressed the dialog just closes without saving, and without the query. Save As... behaves as usual.

1.9.2 v5.1.3

Enhancements

· The fracturing for the export drivers for GPF, V30 and CON/SCON formatters has beenimproved to treat curvature of shapes more intelligently. The fracturing now takes the selectedBSS/Shot Pitch as a criterion for slope approximation into account which

o reduces the number of shapeso prevents over- and underexposureo creates a more homogeneous exposure distribution.

NOTE: This modification will change existing functionality.

· Raith RNS EXPORT: A new feature Circle Detection has been included in the export module.When enabled, the formatter detects circles and writes them with the defined Tolerance to theGDS field files according to format spec

· JEOL v30 EXPORT: Feature sorting in Fields has been improved. Beyond a certain Region Sizesorting was not always possible. To create proper exposure data it is recommended to use a"Compaction Region" size less than the field size (reduce snow flake effect).

Changes

· Raith GPF Export: The High Resolution in the export module can now be switched on in thepython interface with the variable HighResolutionGPFMode.

· Fracture Distortion module: when calculating new position of vertices, the coordinates are nowrounded to the database resolution units instead of being truncated.

Solved issues

· Shape-PEC, especially when using Overdose/Undersize internally performs a series of Booleanoperations that might be very challenging for huge polygons or series to small but connectedshapes. This caused a “sweep-line error”. Shape-PEC now internally refines the task in order toavoid such errors.

· During import of GDSII paths of zero width, conversion to polygons lead to dropped segmentswhenever the input segment length was smaller then the specified size of the polygon conversion.This issue is resolved.

· In the Edit Shot Size Settings panel of the VIEWER the values for Beam Step Size and BeamSize have sometimes been swapped after canceling and later reopening the dialog window. Thisissue is resolved.

67Release Version


· In some cases it happened that BEAMER crashed while loading a flow, the probability increasedfor large flows and slow harddisks/network drives. This has been resolved.

· Raith RNS Export: In the output dialog option "Fixed field traversal type", two options:"MeanderX" and "RasterX" were added in version 5.1.2. The traversal parameter was not addedto the log file. This was fixed in 5.1.3

· Executing a 3D surface PEC with lateral development correction switched on for patterns havinga ‘large’ empty region could result in a crash of BEAMER. This occurred only on Ubuntuoperation systems and is now resolved.

· JEOL EXPORT. Advanced - Field Ordering - Manual: SelectedThenFloating now operatescorrectly.

· The export to textlib used to truncate the number of digits. It now takes the resolution of thepattern into account and uses the required number of digits.

· Advantest BEF export, sleeving ON. For a field overlap > 0 gaps occurred if one field was fullycovered by the written geometries and for a field overlap = 0, gaps occurred at the borderbetween fully covered fields and not fully covered fields. These issues are resolved.

· Raith EBPG: Saving flows which include the E-Beam verification module could cause problemdue to the ‘Simple Manhattan’ writing mode. This problem has been solved and there is no needto update flows. However, the E-Beam shot simulation may lead to slightly different results.

· Raith GPF Import: During GPF import, the first point of a sequence was added twice undercertain circumstances. This issue only arose when the sequence contained only jumps. Theproblem lead to a double exposure of the first shot. This problem has been solved.

· Raith Export GPF: CVIEW issued error messages for situations where the Subfield Size in Xdiffered from the Subfield Size in Y. The GPF Export formatter has been improved to fractureasymmetric Subfield Sizes more reliably.

· Elionix Formatter. In BEAMER 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 the Elionix Formatter altered the field sizesettings and dot number when opening a saved FTXT file. This problem has been resolved.

1.9.3 v5.1.2

Enhancements

· It is now possible to replace variables inside a TXL file with values from a LOOP. Doingthis it is possible to easily generate a variable pattern by placing a prepared TXL fileobtained by IMPORT inside a loop. Example #4 in the TXL section of the manual givessome insights.

Note : This constellation works only for IMPORT TXL within a loop.

· HIMT Export: The Export module now contains an additional tab: Extent. There one canchoose between maintaining the original coordinates ("Input coordinates") or the positionof the center of the original extent ("Automatic").

· Advantest Export: An option "Omit Manhattan Shapes from Sleeving" has been added tothe list of available export options.

· Python Query functions have been added to the manual.



Changes

· HIMT Export: Imported layout files now snap to a 1nm grid. In older versions the layoutsnapped to a pixelsize database grid which shifted figures when the lower left corner wasnot on a pixelsize grid.

Solved issues

· The Temporary File Directory in the Properties Dialog could not be switched from Fixedto Directory of Input Layout. This is now possible.

· Advantest Export: Loading a flow with Replace Existing Files OFF didn’t work correctly.This has been resolved.

· On some windows installations, there may have been problems with SCRIPT moduleexecution. This was fixed.

· In the EXPORT module on Linux machines when changing the file extension name (exporttype) , the default extension had to be manually altered. This no longer occurs.

1.9.4 v5.1.1

Enhancements

· GPF EXPORT: asymmetric treatment of narrow trapezia and rectangles with aheight/width less than the BSS has been improved.

o Too small rectangles are rejected, thus the chance for overexposure isreduced.

o Trapezia with an extent and exposed area close the representative BSSwidth are now preserved. This results in more homogenous exposure andreduces slivers.

NOTE: this will influence existing behavior

· The HIMT Export now supports the n-over (Multipass) exposure strategy. Two modesare available called “Shortest Path” and “Path by Path”.

o Shortest Path – Exposes the pattern stripe by stripe where the offsetbetween each stripe is just stripe width / number of passes.

o Path by Path – Exposes the pattern completely in one pass and returns tothe start position adding a shift of strip width / number of passes

o A check is implemented that allows only natural numbers for the result ofstripe width (in pixels / number of passes)

· Advantest EXPORT: In the BEF 20 EXPORT parameter dialog the user can specify theoverlap dimensions as a multiple of the CP-Size. Please note: 0.0 means that no overlapis introduced.

· Advantest EXPORT now has a Replace Existing File checkbox in the General tab toprevent accidental overwriting existing files.

Changes

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· 3D Surface PEC: the short range correction with 3D Surface PEC should not be used.

· Advantest BEF EXPORT: Sleeving is now performed per field instead of per polygon.This means that the sleeves are only placed on the outer edges of the "healed polygon"consisting of all polygons inside a field. Arrays are flattened when sleeving is enabled.Note that sleeving still occurs on the field boundaries.

· Elionix EXPORT: Scaling with shot pitch is supported by the options: ELC2, ELC4_V1,ELC4_V4, CO7 and CO8. It is not supported for the CO6 and the SCON options and forthese two options cannot be selected.

· Elionix EXPORT: The traversal direction for both standard layout and layout withmultipass has been standardized to ‘bottom up’.

Solved issues:

· PEC lateral development: Asymmetric consideration of SR Blur in 3D -Surface LateralDevelopment has been fixed and dose differences depending on pixel processing orderhave eliminated

· PEC: PEC tries to avoid flattening large arrays and rather forms subarrays where dosechanges make splitting of the array unavoidable. However if using very small databaseunits, this mechanism sometimes failed, resulting in completely flat resulting layouts. Thisissue was fixed.

· PEC: Using PEC on slightly tilted patterns and using a large resolution the resulting datacould be slightly shifted. All PEC Modules now internally use a finer grid. This preventsLayout edges to be shifted due to iterative fracturing during PEC.

· The PEC module sometimes showed incorrect (too small) cpu-times in Log Info. This isnow fixed.

· OASIS IMPORT: Loading OASIS files with arrays with a negative array vector could runinto a bad numeric conversion error; this error was introduced in 5.1.0. It has beenresolved.

· RAITH GPF High Resolution mode: Viewing of patterns with large layouts in highresolution was not possible. Viewing now works correctly.

· RAITH GPF EXPORT: Invalid Y-trapezoids could occur only for BSS values >Resolution and for angled layout data. It was more probable when growing withBSS/Resolution factor. To avoid gaps, the export routine added one BSS to the base ofclipped trapeziums. In rare cases this led to a shape exceeding the maximum figure sizeby < 1 BSS. This issue has been resolved.

· RAITH GPF EXPORT: Exporting a pattern to GPF that was empty gave an errormessage claiming that the dose class number was invalid. Now this is caught and ameaningful message is given.

· JEOL EXPORT/IMPORT: Saving a flow with the field “Layer Order” left empty caused afailure during loading that flow again. This issue is resolved.

· JEOL EXPORT: The loss of pattern data has been fixed in the case that Manual orFloating fields were used in conjunction with Field Overlaps. What maybe still beobserved is that the assignment of pattern data is not optimal due to the fact that for



manual or floating fields and overlapping fields, the data are sorted sequentially. NOTE:this fix will change existing behavior.

· JEOL Jobdeck: An error occurred in BEAMER 5.1.0 in the Jobdeck due to an internalinconsistency in the used coordinate types (32 bit vs 64 bit). The coordinate types havebeen changed to 64 bit accordingly. Note: This error seemed only to occur when thereare no marker definitions.

· Elionix EXPORT Formatter: In the Beam Stepsize fracturing mode certain rectangleswere incorrectly fractured. This issue has been resolved.

· Elionix EXPORT: Exporting patterns that have been corrected by Overdose/Undersizecould lead to gaps in the final exported pattern where the overdosed frame touched thebulk. Now these are prevented by taking special care for this scenario.

· HIMT EXPORT: Errors causing a program crash during export with certain have beensolved.

· In the BEAMER version the Hand Back license was not working correctly. Previouslywhen a license was unavailable, a dialog opened which would let the user attempt to get alicense by clicking yes, or close the BEAMER by clicking no. Now, when clicking no, theBEAMER does not close but stays open for the user to save the flow or attempt toregain a license in a couple of hours. Additionally the BEAMER GUI now has a ConnectLicense button in the Help Menu to allow the user to regain a license directly instead ofrestarting BEAMER.

· VIEWER: for patterns with very deep hierarchy a crash could occur during the pickingoperation. There is no longer a limit in the hierarchy depth.

1.9.5 v5.1.0

Enhancements

· Topographical PEC

o In the 3D-PEC module, the 3D-PEC Tab has a new mode Topographical

Substrate PEC correction to include pre-existing layers on the substrate in the

correction. Edge effects due to electron scattering at the topography edge are

also accounted for.

71Release Version


o A new setting Optimum Contrast/Uniform Clearing to allow for a dose

reduction for dense features to avoid resist residues at high densities has been

implemented.

o For the PEC in topographic substrate the user can switch on a short range

influence correction, this correction is based on the idea, that there are local

inhomogenities of the resist thickness and that on a vertical interface inside of

the substrate slow secondary electrons escape from the substrate into the resist

and influence the exposure. The user can differentiate between a influence

range mode, which adapts the dose everywhere around the topography layer

and an intersection mode, which adapts the dose only at areas where pattern

data are exposed. The additionbal parameter width and dose factor describe the

width of the influenced part and dose factor applied With the checkbox create

new layer for topography influenced data the user can define if the data which

have been modified in dose are moved onto a new layer or not.

· FDA

o A new mode By Region has been introduced in order to manually correct

the dose in defined regions after PEC has been applied. These regions are

defined by layers and the corrections can be graded using a defined sigma

value

· General

o BEAMER now supports coordinates up to 40 bit. Internally it supports 64 bit

coordinates but for the accuracy of floating point calculations, the coordinates

are limited to 40 bit.

o Connections between modules in a flow can be deactivated and again re-

activated by right-clicking on the input area of a module. This is useful in flows

containing branches.

· Export



o Field Order exposure now permits a meander mode in X and Y as well as a

raster mode in X and Y. In addition the Multipass Field Order exposure allows

Line-by-Line, Path-by-Path or Shortest Path modes.

· Mapping

o The mapping module now can map multiple layers to the same alias layer.

Furthermore it supports ranges and automatically expands layers without

datatype to all layer datatype combinations

· Extract

o Multiple regions can be extracted using one of 3 modes: Clip, Within or

Touching. The region layer can have an independent mode than the manually

drawn regions.

Note: after choosing the modes for boxes, please click somewhere else on the

table to update the table, especially for Linux users. Otherwise the selected

mode may not be set to the desired setting.

· VIEWER

o Show Fields has been appended to Show Fields/Cell Extent. In addition Show

Subfields has been added. This is to accommodate non-formatter operations

such as Fracture. Cell Extent shows all cell extents up to current hierarchy

depth on an imported file. Show fields applies to fractured or exported files.

o A small margin of 15 pixel has been added around the layout’s extent making it

easier to grab one of the corners.

o Viewing the Field Traversal Path functions with the zooming option.

· Extent

o In the Extent Tab there is a new extent mode: Maintain. It behaves like the

Automatic mode but gives an error message when the extent of the layout is

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changed, for example if Multipass is activated. (This is similar to the Maintain

in Extract; here, however, no error message is given).

Changes

· Corner PEC

o In Corner PEC the relative dose assignments are set to default 1 and not 0 as

was the case.

· Fracture

o In the Fracture module for Fracturing Type: Flat with Fields patterns with

large extent required lots of memory. : Fracture is now optimized for cases

when geometries are concentrated in a small area of the layout. Note that field

ordering and positioning are still the same as before the optimization.

Solved issues

· General

o Project files or referenced resources located in directories whose names start

with a dot could trigger a bug that prevented the correct loading of resources.

The problem has been corrected and users should now be able to store files in

such directories without problems.

o Saving a flow while inside a database module deleted the main flow. Now

saving within a subflow saves the subflow with the higher levels and where

crashing within a subflow would only save this particular subflow but not the

full flow, now the full flow is saved.

o In some cases the PEC module logged the ‘Proximity Effect Correction started’

message twice. This has been fixed.



o Compatibility issue: It was not possible to open flows which used

Unidirectional X or Y because of name change (to Raster). This problem has

been solved.

· PEC

o Applying Process Loading Effect and Fogging Effect Correction together

could result in a memory allocation error, depending on the ranges of the two

effects. This issue is resolved.

· 3D-PEC

o Fixed bug in PEC fracturing. Pattern integrity was corrupted in rare scenario

where grid-snapping at hole insertion of complex polygons.

o Due to zero dose values in large closed pattern areas, an undefined dose step

was generated resulting in missing fractures and dose discontinuity. This issue

has been resolved.

· 3D Edge PEC

o In the rare scenario that one or more but not all of the input layers were missing

in a long range sub-tile of the layout, the dose table was corrupt. This has been

solved.

· Import

o Importing large *.dxf files with option Database Grid Fixed now functions

normally. BEAMER is now capable of 64 bit coordinates for the geometries.

· Import DXF

o Importing a DXF or CIF file which included a layer which was defined but not

used and in addition selected Keep Order of Elements, an error ‘Layer Index

not defined Error in file occurred. This problem has been solved.

· Export

o Editing of the Label and the Comment module now works correctly.

75Release Version


o When using Follow Geometry, some of the features in the pattern seem to

duplicate. The observed issue was originating from specifying multiple layers in

the layer order definition.

· Merge

o The merge module resets correctly if an additional in module is added. (Solved

in v5.09

o Text elements as annotations are now maintained during the Merge operation.

· VIEWER

o Doing a PNG Export from the VIEWER caused a crash if the drawing of the

layout into the GUI was not finalized at the moment of starting the PNG

Export. This issue is resolved

o Invalid subfield dimensions in visualization. In the implementation of the

subfield visualization the Mainfield Settings Resolution was selected over the

Subfield Settings Resolution for Subfield Size calculation.

In case of Subfield Resolution mode and Settings where the Subfield Settings

Resolution equals the Mainfield Settings Resolution the size was calculated

correctly.



1.10 v5.0

1.10.1 v5.0.6

Solved issues:

· BIAS

o A pattern fidelity issue with a BIAS command has now been solved. In apattern containing contiguous parallel structures rotated non-parallel to theaxis whereby the pattern was non-homogenous; areas of the pattern weredensely packed and others less densely packed, a BIAS operation wasapplied resulting in missing data. Such patterns are 3D off-axis gratingstructures.

1.10.2 v5.0.5

Solved issues:

· PEC

o 3D Edge PEC: wrong doses caused by locally missing layer(s). In therare case that one or more but not all of the input layers were missing in along range correction area of a layout, the dose table was corrupt. Thisissue has now been solved.

1.10.3 v5.0.4

Solved issues:

· PEC

o 3D Edge PEC: In Long Range 3D Edge PEC dose interaction andhandling of layers with similar doses was optimized. Usually in 3D edgePEC different layers are used to create accurately defined dose steps atlayer limits.

o Now if two adjacent layers happen to have approximately the same dose thedose profile will behave as if they are one i.e. no lowering at the edge toreach the half dose edge target.

o Hierarchical operations (PEC and bias): with an operation only on parts ofthe layers on an array of a cell which contains one layer on which theoperation is performed and one layer which should not be processed resultin duplicated data (PEC) and missing data (bias) for the layer which was notprocessed during the operation. This issue is resolved.

· Raith

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o A refinement step to improve the writing order in the Raith GPF module wasintroduced in version 5.0. The Export function did not terminate in certaincases with certain patterns. This issue is now fixed.

o Exported Raith GPF file with sequences in especial cases extending beyondsubfields could not be viewed. This was strongly pattern dependent and thisissue has now been solved.

o RNS EXPORT was set to write a fixed amount of decimals (3). This meansthat any resolution values lower than 0.001 microns were rounded. Thenumber of written decimals has been changed to 6 to allow higher resolutionsettings.

o RNS EXPORT: The exposure voltage parameter is now saved and loadedfrom the flow file instead of a global config file. The default voltage is 50kV.In addition the default Field Size is 500 µm.

o RNS Export: For the Fixed Fields option the traversal path startedincorrectly at the top left field. This has been corrected to the bottom leftfield.

· JEOLo In JEOL EXPORT using array compaction, a compaction region smaller

than the field size, a region traversal mode meander Y and exporting apattern with arrays, where the pitch is smaller than the compaction regionsize, could cause a data loss during export. This problem has been solved.

o JEOL EXPORT: Minimum of region size is no longer hard set to 5um. Itnow depends on the main field size and is the minimum of the threefollowing values: 5.0, MainFieldSizeX/256, MainFieldSizeY/256. Thisapplies to all JEOL Formats. The region size can now be set to the subfieldsize.

o In the JEOL EXPORT (JEOL 6300) dialog on the Multipass mode was theoption subfield fracturing enabled in the case of field ordering mode manualand floating, even if the subfield fracturing did not take place during export.This wrong dialog behavior has been corrected.

o With version 5.0.0 a new shot pitch fractioning for the JEOL 5500 and 6300

was introduced. When shot pitch fractioning was activated (and only then) a

Traptwist error occurred. This issue has been resolved. (See additional

information for JEOL users).

· Elionixo Elionix CON EXPORT file showed an incorrect pitch value: The issue

occurred because the Pitch Size was explicitly being set to 1nm whenMultipass was enabled. Furthermore, beam step size fracturing was enabledin case the pitch size was greater than 1, resulting in inconsistent layout.Now the Pitch Size is maintained regardless of Multipass mode and BSSfracturing is always disabled.

o When trying to export a pattern file in the CON format where the number ofdose classes was greater than 252 (256 is the maximum), an error message



'negative dose values' appeared. The dose conversion during import hasnow been fixed.

· HIMTo The HIMT export no longer takes the extent for positioning of the stripes

but refers to the bounding box of the geometries. This does not affect the

positioning on the substrate because the positioning refers to the origin in

the coordinate system of the input layout. However it improves writing

performance.

· General o Error during FRACTURE: In rare cases it happened that during fracture the

error message "Attempt to copy a polygon into a wrong sized space"occurred. This issue is resolved.

o Importing files with loops using the IMPORT module caused BEAMER tocrash in version 5.0.0. The cause of this error has been now corrected.

79Release Version


1.10.4 v5.0.3

Solved Issues

· General

o IMPORTANT: Data Integrity Issue (missing shapes) for really large layouts:In case the size of a GDSII file exceeded the amount of main memory onthe computer by a factor of 3, the spatial sorting dropped shapes whenwriting to disk. For example, a 24 GB GDSII file would be (still) ok on acomputer with 8 GB memory, whereas a 25 GB GDSII file could already runinto the issue. For text files such as CIF / DXF, the issue would show if thefile is 6x larger than the amount of memory. This issue is fixed.

· Raith

o When exporting Raith GPF files which included circles with radius smallerthan the used beam step size, a bad numeric conversion error could occur.Now such small features are no longer detected as circles and the defaultLRFT fracturing is executed.

o A pattern loss was fixed that occurred when the BSS was significantly largerthan the resolution. Due to some round issues trapezoids were dropped inthe exported file.

o In the Raith EXPORT GPF Module on a Windows platform, switchingbetween the Fracture Modes, and especially for the sequence mode, thedialog did not update properly. This issue has been resolved.

o In the Raith RNS export an error message was created if the extent was setto user-defined and not all geometries fitted inside this extent. The patternwas exported with geometries outside of the pattern extent, which was notcorrect. This problem has been corrected.

o Raith RNS Export: Field Overlap parameters are now enabled in theMultipass tab.

· HIMT

o Configuration files are now included in the HIMT EXPORT installerprogram.

o Filenames in the HIMT export module now support variables.

· Advantest

o The log file of the Advantest BEF Export formatter has been greatlyimproved. For example the number of main fields, offsets, sub-field size andthe total number of shots are now displayed.

· Elionix

o Elionix EXPORT: For pattern data which provides only a constant dose andin conjunction with the dose-to-class export mode, the base dose value isnow assigned to dose class D001.



· Export General

o Problems occurred with Multipass options in various EXPORT moduleswhere the mainfield and subfield settings were visually reset after reopeningthe dialog. This issue has been resolved.

· Raith Import:

o The RNS Import module is now also able to import zero line width paths.

· Various:

o In the IF and Select modules an error occurred when loading a flow file withthe "Condition" property empty. This has been fixed.

o The option Parallel Processing of Loops was defect in version 5.0.0; italways resulting in an error message "Input layout is missing". This issue isresolved.

1.10.5 v5.0.2

Enhancements

· Advantest

o The BEF Format has been extended significantly. A separate info for this isavailable upon request.

· HIMT

o Exposure stripes generated during the DWL Export are trimmed from leading

and training empty areas generating an optimized stripe for exposure leading to

less exposure time.

Solved Issues

· Elionix

o Due to the dose class implementation, the representation of relative dose valuesin the Elionix textual CCC and SCCC pattern files was corrupted. Therefore theinspection of dose values with Elionix Tools was not possible. The issue hasbeen resolved. Please note, that for dose class representation dose values cannow be inspected properly (SCON only).

· JEOL

o The shot calculation for JEOL 9500 S did not work correctly if the export was

done with 0.25nm resolution. This issue is resolved. Changing EOS mode in

81Release Version


JEOL 51 Export did not automatically scale the subfield size. In the JEOL 51

Export dialog the update of the subfield size is working again.

· General

o In case an operation with several threads was running and the user added a new

import module it could happen that the application hangs. This was caused by a

thread license needed for checking the file type, therefore it needed some time

until the operation has finalized a work package and gives back a thread license

for a moment. This behavior has been made more user friendly, the check of the

file type does not need a thread license any more.

1.10.6 v5.0.1

Enhancements

· Raith NanoSuite

o Import and Export for the RAITH NanoSuite has been added

· Export

o VIEWER (standalone) can now import Raith RNS and Advantest BEF20

formats

o JEOL v30 now offers for Writing Order and Array Compaction a Region

Traversal mode (Meander X & Y, Unidirectional X & Y, Nearest Next)

· Import

o CIF Import module now supports User Define Resolution Units, as well as the

old "Standard" and "Cadence" modes.

o GDS, DXF and LTxt are now supporting the import of annotations and optionally

the conversion to polygons of the imported text. BEAMER uses the position of

the text elements to define the top left position of the text.

Solved Issues

· Export



o Advantest BEF Export: It sometime happened after using the View button for

visualizing the field positioning that BEAMER crashed after closing the dialog.

This issue is resolved.

o Elionix Export: In the Export Dialog / Advanced the user has the choice in Dose

Mapping between "Dose To Time" and "Dose To Class".

· General

o Modules using softframe did not always merge all elements together. The

algorithm used has been improved, so that now adjacent polygons with only a

part intersection are merged together.

o Placement errors on exporting jobdeck files: Previously the nearest marker to

the cell center was mapped to the cell. Now the nearest marker in the cell is

mapped, and if that does not exist the nearest marker overall is selected.

o The Windows 32bit builds had a bad dependency for a debug library which

prevented starting of the software. This issue is resolved.

1.10.7 v5.0.0

Enhancements

· PEC

o Lateral development Correction now added to the PEC module.

Please note: Hierarchic Short Range Correction is not supported when 2D

lateral development bias correction is used. So it is automatically disabled

when 2D lateral development bias correction is activated.

o PEC module can now use variables for layer processing definition

o Enhancements in the strategy during dose class fracturing have reduced the

number of elements generated. Especially elements neighboring another and

sharing the same dose class should appear significantly less.

o Dose class healing in the Heal module also reduces the number of cuts.

· Export (machine independent)

83Release Version


o Feature sorting now available in the EBPG, VEP and JEOL export modules.

For Feature Order there are 4 possibilities: NoCompaction, ArrayCompaction,

WritingOrder and FollowGeometry.

WritingOrder means that trapezoids are exposed according to a 'next

neighbor' principle. This feature reduces 'beam jumping' during exposure. The

selected mode in Regional Traversal is then applied.

FollowGeometry means that contiguous structures are exposed i.e complete

lines before exposure of the next structure begins. ArrayCompaction together

with Region Size reduces the area in which features are exposed successively.

In Region Traversal the exposure in a meander manner, or it can be in a

unidirectional manner. NOTE: in VEP is currently not possible to set a specific

Subfield traversal order. This is due to the Pattern Generator.

The manual region handling has been changed to prioritize feature assignment

by the field number. This reduces 'field-jumping' and thus reduces writing time.

Fields with a smaller number have a higher priority. Basically when one 'manual'

region has been exposed, the 'beam shift' to the next field has been optimized

thus reducing 'field jumping'. Please note, that this will change existing

functionality. Fields may be traversed in a different order.

For more details please refer to the updated formatter notes that can be

retrieved from the download page.

· RAITH – EBPG and VEP

It is now possible to preview the field positions for fixed fields for the VEP

formatter.

o The missing file extension *.mds for NuFlare jobdeck files has been added to

the import file extension list.



o Saving a file in Oasis format is now improved by compression and processing

speed.

o Circles generated with LayoutEditor can be exported with the proper TextLib

circle syntax.

o The Field order control for manual layers has now an option ">". This forces

the sequential processing of layers in the manual field order. e.g. 10-12 are

processed first 10, than 11 and finally 12. A 10-12 will process all layers

simultaneously

· Shape PEC

o Shape-PEC can now perform corrections also for a laser writer. As input the

spotsize is being used.

Please note: For 3D and Shape-PEC, as PSF representation is not applicable

for Laser exposure, it is not selectable in the general tab.

· GUI

o All process flow tabs now have on the right of the tab a small 'x' which can be

used for closing the flow/tab.

o Larger Module 'connection range'.

o Now the Log/Error/…information is attached to each flow! The

Log/Error/Module/Python info panel may now be positioned either at the right

hand side of the work area or below the work area or it can be detached.

· File Properties is now divided into three sections.

o General tab which includes file path option, number of threads, license

management and other settings.

o Directories tab where directories are defined as well as the license server

address.

85Release Version


o File defaults for directory management.

· Fracturing

o Curved fracturing for structures such as partial rings and circles has now been

enabled. Previously only full rings and circles were recognized and now with

this enhancement even these partial rings and circles can benefit from the

optimized fracturing previously only available for the full rings and circles.

o Unnecessary cuts on fracturing can be avoided by increasing the polygon

vertex limit in FILE / Properties, General tab.

o The new smoothing function improves the smoothing of polygons.

· Import

o A part of the import step for standard CAD formats, such as oasis and gds,

files is to create spatially sorted data structures for fast access in the

upcoming operations and in the visualization. The performance of this step

has been improved and this operation is running now multithreaded. It shows a

good scaling behavior for up to 4 threads.

o For DXF, GDSII and TextLib a “Load Text Elements” option has been

provided. Patterns containing annotations can load these now into BEAMER.

To view these elements enable in the VIEWER the “Show Text Elements”

under Properties.

o An option: “Convert Color to Datatype“ to DXF Import has been added so that

FDA can be used to assign dose values.

o JEOL

Previously, JEOL with no compaction did not keep the writing order, but did a

subfield sorting. This issue is resolved, the data are now exposed according



to the order in the incoming pattern.

Shot Pitch Fracturing improvements have been made to improve the fractures

generated and match them better towards the fill strategies of the JBX 6300

FS allowing a smoother edge precision.

o Elionix

The Elionix Export Parameter dialog has been extended by an additional

"Multipass" tab. This panel provides standard settings for specifying the

multipass exposure options. In this version "Subfield" Multipass (Repetition) is

not yet available.

o OASIS

The following dose mapping options have been added: Dose to Property

(default), Dose to Layer, Dose to Datatype and None.

· VIEWER

o On opening the multi layout viewer the color mode is set to color-by-layout.

o In the Viewer, Layout orders are shown in Top->Down, then Left->Right order

from BEAMER. And in "Layer" tab, layout order is editable.

o For DXF, GDSII and TextLib a “Load Text Elements” option has been

provided. Patterns containing annotations can load these now into BEAMER.

To view these elements enable in the VIEWER the “Show Text Elements”

under Properties.

o EXTRACT

o Now there is an option to preserve or shrink the dose classes in Extract when

extracting parts of the pattern.

87Release Version


o The performance of an Region Extract on data from binary data, which are

already sorted into fields (GPF, v30, …) has been improved significantly

o In the Extract module, when choosing ExtractionType->Cell Instances/Cell

Definition mode, the top cells are always shown in Bold Font in the beginning

of the cell list.

o Cell extract now supports “Maintain“ and “Minimum“ extent mode.

· LOOP

o “Insert Row” is a new option for the LOOP allowing the addition of a single

row in the list of entries provided in the dialog.

o Loop entries can be individually switched on/off making debuging easier.

· Conditional Processing

o The added “If” module allows a conditional query within a Flow. The “If”

module has one input and two outputs. If the condition is true the right output

of the “If” module is used, otherwise the left output is chosen. The condition

has to be any function resulting in true or false. See the manual for application

and example.

The new “Select” allows with the same command set as the “If” to select one

of the Input patterns to be chosen.

o In the Python modules new features are available, especially statistical

information such as area of pattern, number of shapes, number of fields etc.

· General

o Flows are now saved with the version and build number allowing a better

tracking how this flow was generated

o The performance of multithreaded operations using a softframe larger than 0

has been improved, the gain depend on the number of threads used, for 8



threads in our tests the gain was around 5%. (Using BEAMER on a cluster

with 264 cores should result in an improvement of up to 30%.)

· BEAMER Manual

o The index has been updated and greatly extended making it easier to find

required sections. However if you come across missing entries, please

contact [email protected]

Changes

· HIMT Export

o The HIMT Export Driver now recognizes only alphanumeric and underscore

characters to create a filename. Special characters are now blocked for HIMT

file names as they cause the writer to abort the processing.

o The HIMT export generates a list of files which could be dangerous for

overwriting files. Now there is check box “Replace Existing files”, default OFF

and if this check box is OFF, an error message is created if one of the files

already exists.

o The export has been enhanced to skip empty areas between the bottom of a

stripes and the actual pattern. This reduces exposure time and generates

smaller files.

· 3D Edge PEC:

o Removed target dose interaction between layers. Previously a target dose

was derived from the input table assuming that a higher dose layer must be

stacked on top of the layer with the next lower dose. This restriction turned

out to be contra productive and limiting for some applications.

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o The minimum dose value limit for the 3D PEC has been removed. Values

below 0.1 are now accepted as target values and properly treated without

rounding to 0.1.

o In 3D PEC the input for the “Original Thickness” moved to “Contrast Curve”

dialog. “Original Thickness” must be equal or greater than highest value in

Contrast Curve.

· Gaussian PEC: performance optimization. In case of automatic Short Range

(SR) separation Gamma values smaller than the SR Beam Blur are now moved

to the SR part. This avoids performance loss due to a very fine separate Mid

Range PEC.

· In JEOL jobdeck export dialog the entry “Calib Menu Name” has been renamed

to “Path Calibration File”

· In the Viewer, the toggle “Properties/Show Dose Annotations” now selects the

dose annotation when it is switched on, independent of the color mode

· The DXF Export uses the AutoCAD r12 revision for writing DXF files.

· The font of text inside of the VIEWER for screens larger with more than full HD

resolution is more readable.

Solved Issues

· PEC

o 3D Lateral Development PEC was cutting off doses larger than 1.0. This has

been resolved.



o Correcting an array can introduce oscillating dose jumps. Bitmap pixel-size

might introduce Moire pattern in dose images. This has been significantly

reduced by computing the pattern coverage on a finer grid.

o The PEC Layer field now works with variables

o If a User chooses automatic minimum figure size in PEC, the value of the min

figure size fields is no longer evaluated.

· Import

GDS files with a dose 0 on a layer caused an error message in the dose table

range when opening the exported GDS pattern for viewing. Now resolved.

· Export

o A simple pattern with, for example, 1.1,1.2, 1.3, 1.4 as dose classes for a

GDS export got realigned during import of the gds file. The GDS import now

takes the exact generated dose values from the exports and uses them

instead of generating 64 dose values. This also means that the dose-to-layer

behaves differently, as now only the layers present are imported instead of

generating 64 values.

o When setting the multipass in the export module to a 1/3rd shift and a 3X

pass, the stage movements were not 1/3rd of the field size. This problem has

been solved.

o Interleaving in the Export module correction at field borders implemented.

o In rare cases BEAMER could not able to store a layout in the OASIS format.

The reason is that an array of cell references had a repetition of 1 in X and 1

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in Y direction. OASIS cannot store such array references. BEAMER now

stores the reference as a single reference.

o Interleave export gave wrong results. The interleaving was damaged at the

field borders. This issue is now resolved. There is no movement of the center

of the fields within the pattern.

o A positional offset using Cell-to-Field Export was happening when two

patterns were merged and one of those pattern had a TRANSFORM with shift

applied. This problem has been resolved.

o Short range dose PEC accuracy enhancement for polygons containing chains

of very short segments now present. By allowing more dose sample points

along the chains when decreasing the min. fig. size. Previously the number

was limited by alpha blur. Now if MFS < alpha blur additional are inserted

making the result more stable due to averaging.The problem was asymmetric

PEC results. Additional checks result in better PEC results

o Viewing of MEBES files is faster now. The issue that operations on MEBES

binary files failed is resolved.

o Shape PEC: Enhanced handling of numerical PSFs for very small long range

energy contributions, for example, for membrane stacks to handle the

correction more accurate. The fix now takes a deeper look at PSFs and

iteratively reduces the range / increases pixel size, until processing can

achieve a desired accuracy. This reduces the correction speed but is required

to maintain the overall PEC accuracy.



o The HIMT_Beam.ini and HIMT_SoftStitching.ini were missing from the

configuration path and have now been added.

o Exporting a hierarchical pattern including arrays using multiple fields could lead

to data loss at boundary borders as more fields are required. This is now

resolved.

o Placement errors in JEOL jobdeck files: Previously the nearest marker to the

cell center was mapped to the cell. Now we map the nearest marker in the cell

and if that does not exist the the nearest marker overall.

o Several issues regarding the stability of BEAMER have been resolved,

especially the stability using the global viewer during running modules has

been enhanced.

o GPF Export: The writing order for overlapping fields has been enhanced to

follow now a meander strategy. Previously the approach was a line-by-line

introducing unnecessary stage movements.

1.11 v4.8

1.11.1 v4.8.4

Enhancements

· BEAMER Manual o The index has been updated and greatly extended making it easier to find

required sections. However if you come across missing entries, please contact [email protected]

Solved Issues

· Import DXFoBEAMER 4.8 implemented more strict checks on the required DXF syntax in

the Import module compared to previous versions. As a result, some customer

mailto:[email protected]

93Release Version


DXF files that had duplicate name definitions in the BLOCK section could notbe imported. Now, duplicate name definitions are allowed.

· Export Raith GPFo During Raith GPF Export in the Multipass mode when using Interleaving or

Interleaving with extra field for features with dimensions close to the BSS/Resolution settings a ‘rounding error’ occurred. Interleaving results in ‘zipper’like interlocking elements and some of these interlocking elements weremisplaced when ‘clipped’ arrays were used.

o Sequence generation no longer needs a placement layer. If the placement layersetting in the GPF dialog is left empty, a placement layer is created with thesize of the sequence cell extent.

o Important: Both the sequence layer and the placement layer setting can be leftempty in the GPF dialog without a warning being given. In this case when bothare left empty, for patterns with circles sequences are generated, for otherstructures, the polygons are simply fractured.

o In very rare cases with the combination of Circular fracturing plus BSSfracturing and large BSS with fine resolution, duplicate areas were produced.This no longer occurs.

· Export JEOL v30o In the v30 export, floating fields were used and overlapping data was generated

that did not exist in the data prior to the export. Arrays in overlapping floatingfield areas were assigned to both of the related fields and hence exported twice.This issue has been resolved.

· Export ADVANTEST BEF20o The Array handling of the BEF 20 export module produced duplicate area in

the overlap region of fields and subfields. This problem has been solved.

· Proximity Effect Correctiono The combination of a transform with a scaling smaller 1.0 which results in a

geometry of size 0 and a following PEC step for a bitmap pattern caused aninternal error message. This issue is resolved.

o The PEC on a pattern with a rectangle or polygon which has all points on thesame position failed with an error message, this issue is resolved. Such asituation can be arise on importing a gds file or by applying a transformoperation with a scaling factor smaller than 1 on a rectangle.

· After loading a recover file with results and adding an module to such an alreadyexecuted module, the visualization of the layout inside of the parameter dialogdid not work. This issue is resolved.



1.11.2 v4.8.3

Enhancements

· PEC Mid-range performance:o When using PEC on sparse patterns i.e. isolated patterns over a wide area, the

mid-range correction was very time consuming. This issue has been addressednow with much better performance for such cases.

· IMPORT HIMT:o HIMT CFG Patterns for DW2000 and DW66 Exposure Tools can now be

imported with BEAMER.

· File Import: o The GDS file type filter was extended by "*.GDS" (all in uppercase)

· Centering of Module Dialog: On opening the modules: Bias, Filter, Size, E-BeamMetrology and Script, the dialog window is now centered on the screen.

· SHAPE-PEC: o The performance of the Shape PEC has been improved (mainly visible on large

layouts).

Solved Issues

· IMPORT CIF: o Large polygons that exceeded 1024 characters in one line resulted in an error

message. This no longer occurs.

· EXPORT HIMT:o The export now skips empty stripes in sparse patterns, reducing the overall

exposure time.o The export performance has been significantly improved.o The scaling factor “Max Dose” is checked against the highest dose present in the

layout. The corresponding error message has been made more meaningful, andsuggest to either remove overlaps (in case the dose value comes from anoverlap), or to change the “Max Dose” value in the Export HIMT module dialog(in case the dose factor comes from a correction).

· EXPORT VEP Writing Order:o Writing order optimization is improved if an array of elements is found. This is

relevant if WritingOrder in Feature Ordering is selected in the EXPORTVEP/General tab.

o During export of VEP, an error could occur under the following conditions: i) The input pattern had hierarchy, ii) One of the referenced cells had arrayed geometries (e.g. from an earlier VEP

import), iii) The layout was transformed (e.g. rotation by 90 degree in which case the

hierarchical fracture executed the transformation twice, putting the arrayed datainto the wrong position).

This error has been resolved.

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1.11.3 v4.8.2

Enhancements

· HEAL – as a result of HEAL, polygons can get extensively large (meaning that theycan consist of thousands of vertices). In general, operations on polygons becomemore inefficient the larger the polygon is – therefore, BEAMER cuts large polygonsinto smaller polygons with less than 1000 vertices each. Finding a “good” cutdepends very much on the type of polygons, and was improved for long, anisotropicpolygons to avoid slivers and to reduce the overall number of cuts

· The Metrology table can now be exported to a text file.

Solved Issues

· The MERGE now properly resets upon connecting another module at the inputports.

· EXPORTo Elionix – A crash as a result of using a shot pitch larger than 1 has been fixed.o Advantest – A memory issue that resulted in a crash occurring when exporting

large dense arrayed patterns was fixed.· IMPORT

o OASIS import ran into the following error: "Geo segment is not open for insert;Error in file memorydbase.cpp...". This happened only in rare cases if i) therewere large polygons in the layout (> 1000 vertices), and ii) such a polygon wasthe first element to be inserted into a spatially sorted region. The underlyinglogic is now correct.

1.11.4 v4.8.1

Enhancements

· Web based-license visualization and management interface.

o In the BEAMER tool bar under File/Properties, the user can now set a time afterwhich the license is disconnected when idle. Reconnection is possible. Inaddition in the Help function, also in the tool bar, the user can manuallydisconnect the license. Also from the Help tab the user has access to the CodeMeter web-based administration program in which the various product licensescan be disconnected.

· 3D PEC for laser exposure has been implemented.

· Filter module now has an attribute Angle in the selection rules· In the Elionix F125 the dose time interpolation can be switched On or OFF by a

checkbox

Solved Issues

· PEC

oMissing default psf file for all PEC modules. Ideally the default PSF file shouldnot be deleted from the list. However if this is the case, BEAMER takesanother psf file from the list as default and no longer issues an error message.



oOverlapping figures. Overlapp during PEC could occur, if a separate mid rangecorrection was applied AND a loading effect correction with an influencerange larger than the mid range influence range was applied

o Edge PEC - restricted to 3 layers. Removed error message that prevented usersfrom using more than 3 design layers with different target doses in 3D edge

o Shape PEC : Etch Bias Open Area inside / outside now has the possibility toapply asymmetric namely elliptic density function.

o This is very suitable for better control / diversification between 1D and 2Dstructures.

oAn error message while reopening a PEC or E-Beam dialog with PSF selectedfrom the global archive no longer occurs.

· Import

o On importing a file as an fwr file which is empty, an appropriate error messageis now displayed.

o The loading of a pattern with a large number of references sometimes failed.This has also been resolved.

· Export

o Exporting data to the JEOL v30 format sometimes failed. This was due tosnapping during resolution transformation. In these cases self-overlappingpolygonal shapes were generated. Two fixes have been applied, one for therounding routine in the Grid step, and one for the JEOL export step.

o CellToField :: Error: bad numeric conversion: negative overflow Error in file"portability_api.h" at line 729 The error shown above occurred if anunsupported combination of parameters for the JEOL output driver wasselected. Now a more 'readable' error message is displayed.

o RAITH gds output: An initial version of the CSF export module, which allowsto downfracture the pattern data into the required field structure has beenimplemented. A tooltab to specify the underlying system exposure voltage hasbeen added.

o JEOL j51 format: Maximum 50um Sub-Field Size for EOS Mode 3 and 4Violated in J51 Format. The issue was caused by using an invalid origin lowerleft for subfield decomposition whereas the specification requires upper leftposition. Problem solved.

· Viewer

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o Field boundaries vanish when zooming in: In the viewer if Draw Fields isselected the fields where not shown at a very high zoom in. This is now fixed. Ifthe draw mode is Color by Cell, the field boxes are now drawn in the cellcolor.

o Overwriting an existing layer style management now operates correctly.

· Optimizer

oVariables do not load: In BEAMER 4.8.0/LAB 4.3.0 the loading of optimizermodules from an ftxt file does not work, the variables were lost. Solved in 4.8.1

o Error occurred after running optimizer for a short time. While adding the resultsto the recovery files an instability in BEAMER occurred. In rare cases ithappened that BEAMER crashed. For loops with steps with very shortexecution times this behavior showed up more often. This issue is resolved.

· General

o JEOL shot display for 9500 is now implemented; it is similar to the 9300 shotdisplay.

o Layer extraction: A layer extract on a layout with a large number of layers(>1000) is now significant faster, (for 5800 layers and only a few geometriesthe execution time was 178s before, now its 2s).

1.11.5 v4.8.0

Enhancements

· PECo Major 3D Edge PEC rework for quality and performance: The behavior has

been changed the way that the input layers are preserved. This is done in orderto eliminate the tricky up-front layer combination computation. Instead of thisthe SR PEC takes care of the local dose assignment. As consequence in theoutput the layers are stacked in the output as they were in the input. Doseassignments will be lower as they are distributed over more figures.

o 3D PEC Lateral Development: This feature considers the fact that adjacentareas with different target depths interact. More specifically, the area with thehigher development rate will mill into the adjacent lower rate areas. This iscompensated for by adjusting the rates by dose modulation. The currentlyimplemented model assumes a constant development rate in the z-direction.

o Lateral Development - Added Dose Blur PEC on Pixels. 3D LateralDevelopment PEC (3D) now considers short range pixel-to-pixel interaction by



dose modulation. Whether the SR compensation is applied depends on thegiven alpha value and the lateral development pixel size.

o Sorting of entries in the PEC Archive Table has now a new option to sort by Date and Time thus its easier select the latest PSF added from the archive.

o Enhanced short range PEC performance for large polygons with overlappingbounding boxes, e.g zone plates. Influence calculation is done more efficientlyby reusing intermediate results.

o Integrated iso-grid fracturing for iso-grid figures into short range PEC.o The checks on the PEC must not be repeated when the user confirmed them

using OK. The properties dialog now has an additional checkbox called "workwithout archive". Checking this box leads to the archive radiobox in the PECand EBEAM dialogs to be disabled and the gaussian radiobox to be the default.This prevents the user from being spammed by a dialog reminding him that thearchive is not set.

· FRACTUREo A new Feature "Symmetric Fracturing“ has been added to the Fracture

Module. This Feature checks the X-Axis and Y-Axis. The deviation parameterfor the mirror axis is set to a maximum range deviation of 20% of the resultinggrid mirror structures for symmetric characteristics. Currently we supportmirrors parallel to the axes.

· IMPORTo PNG Import: Speed improvements: the performance of the import of png files

has been improved, its up to a factor of 2 faster.

o OASIS files: On importing large OASIS files, a speedup of 3x has beenaccomplished

o To further speed-up the OASIS import an additional option "apply polygonvalidation" is available in the import dialog (default is ON). The pythonparameter for this option is 'PolygonValidation' : true

o Better detection of DXF polylines. According to the DXF specification, aclosed polygon should be stored as a polyline with the "closed" flag set, butsome DXF converters export polylines that are inconsistent with this spec. NowBEAMER includes the capability to detect if a polyline is a closed polygon.

o CIF Files: The import of wires/ring structures was incorrect - it did not userounded ends, but square ends. This is now fixed.

· EXPORT (machine type independent)o A regional compaction has been implemented for JEOL, GPF and VEP

formats. This option sorts the elements within the compaction region size to bewritten as a block improving the lithography.

o Multipass without mainfield shift for floating and manual fields: Formatters(GPF, VEP, JEOL) support multipass for floating and manual fields by simplyrepeating the exposure at the same position with mainfield and subfield fixedzero shifting.

o Manual fields allows now that the remaining pattern is exported with floatingfield control. This allows a precise control for specific areas and an automaticsorting to floating fields for less critical regions but still reducing the overall

99Release Version


field count going away from meander mode fields placement. This option isenabled by selecting under field control the new item -> SelectedThenFloating.

o The field order modes Manual and Floating can now be used with Multipass.This is done by stacking and not introducing a field shift between the repeatedfields.A browse button now exists to choose the Region Layer for certainexport dialogs that have manual field settings. It is enabled if manual fields isselected and a layout has already been imported. These include Vistec.gpf, .iwfl, .vep; JEOL v51 and v52; Crestec .con and Elionix .con.

· RAITH - EBPG and VBo The GPF Import now has an additional parameter (Merge Subfield cuts during

import [boolean value]) which was always done before and couldn't be turnedoff. Due to this change where the GPF import was extended by a parameter wehad to change the import of GPF to a parameter based import. For old flowswhich do not have this parameter saved the import will recognize the oldprocess where the subfield cuts are being merged. Saving the flow now willautomatically save this value unless changed.

o Enhanced behavior of parameter changes in VEP Export: When the fractureresolution is changed, the exposure resolution now checks the list of availableresolutions and if the old value is in the new list, the value is kept. Additionallythe mainfield resolution is now only changed if the new maximum field size isless than the currently set value. The VEP dialog was changed so that themainfield resolution is now shown on the first tab and changes to the resolutionare thus more visible.

o The GPF / VEP dialogs have been re-design and now house the main field sizeand resolutions setting on the Generla tab.

o Error messages which might pop up during using the GPF sequencereplacement mode now include the line number.

· HIMT LICo The LIC Export has been reworked and now generates LIC files directly

without intermediate steps. This simplifies the usage significantly and makesany script work unneccesary.

· JEOLo Export JEOL Jobdeck, the Import File label changed from Import v30 to

Browse v30 or j51 ...o Zero width paths import in the JEOL 01 Import module has been implemented.o The Jobdeck export has been extended to accept different marker placement

for ARRAY detection. Markers are assigned to the reference position with thesmallest distance between the marker and cell/chip origin.

· LOOPo General Batch Conversion: now an easier approach. In the previous

implementation, a user would typically wrap a loop around an import andexport module with a variable for the file name in each. Now there is a changedbutton functionality in the Parameter Dialog of the Loop node. The "DeleteVariable" button was remade into the "File List..." button. Pressing this buttonwill open a multi-select file dialog. There you can select various files of whichthe paths will be stored into the value table. The functionality of the "DeleteVariable" button was moved to a "-" button next to the variable name.



· VIEWERo Clicking on the Replay Mode Control button redraws the layout as exposed in

the ebeam tool. Should be used on re-imported Export files.o Enable VIEWER to generate MueTec scripts: The export IMP dialog has an

additional table, which allows to add additional measurement lines.

· Generalo Global PSF archive in addition to user PSF archive. A new option allows the

setting of a global PSF archive. This allows to separate a local installation froma group PSF archive and share selected PSFs among users.

o Exporting a flow with results now shows a progress dialog. The Progress isrelated to the file size written on the disk. Also an estimated time is displayedRecovery of crashed flows with results. A crashed flow reloads with all thecompleted intermediate results that are available.

o Hot-keys: New Hot-Keys both for BEAMER and for the VIEWER have beenadded. Please go to the handbook for further information. The Hotkeys havetheir shortcut key strokes shown next to their associated menu item. Forexample, under the Edit menu the Copy menu item has the text Ctrl+C next toit.

o Temp file clean up. Temp files are registered and cleaned up.o When loading the properties dialog for the first time with the old .ini file the

Flow File Save option will be set the same as the Log File Save option. Afterthe first successful opening and agreeing to the settings the .ini file will bewritten with a new variable: CREATEFLOWFILESWITHEXPORT which isresponsible for the flow file handling.

Changes

· Shape PEC does not HEAL the incoming pattern. The input pattern for aShape PEC has to be free of overlaps. The previous versions did an internalHEAL step, because of performance reasons this step is now in theresponsibility of the user.

· When exporting/importing a flow with result, the user definable path parameter inthe Import and Export nodes gets replaced by a path relative to the temp directory.This problem has been fixed by saving an absolute file path.

· Currently most of the dialogs have their initial top-left corner positioned to the top-left corner of the workflow area. Dialogs such as the PEC module are now so large,that they required the user to almost always move them to the top-left so that theOK/Cancel buttons are visible. These are now centered in the middle of the screensuch that the OK and Cancel buttons are always visible.

· Under BEAMER Properties, log files and flow files can be separately filed to theexport file directory.

· RAITH

101Release Version


o Raith: renamed Vistec to Raith, config file is renamed, old installationsneed to manually rename their config file (VISTECEBPG.INI renamed toEBPG.INI). Please refer also to the formatter note.

· JEOL

o The JEOL JDI export now also generates a dose table for uncorrected data.The dose table contains only the representation for the unity dose.

o JEOL center to field should not grow extent. The center to field option in JEOLonly affected the result if the data fit into one field. The JEOL Center To Fieldoption has been modified to reduce the field size to the pattern extent ratherthan to enlarge the pattern extent to field size. Please be aware that thismodification could influence existing behaviour, the jobdeck positioning shouldnot be influenced, since the pattern data is still centered around the extent.

Solved Issues

· GENERALo BEAMER issues with a loop including a splitter within the loop, (only with

Parallel processing of loops). Now fixed.o The position of the layout in the VIEWER is no longer affected by the buttons

Set Position and Get Position.o Background Color of the Tree Viewer tab: The panel color has been changed to

the background color White, only for linux.o In case an error message occurs during loading a flow file, the line causing the

error message is now indicated.o Memory Management has been improved. Loading of many layouts no longer

causes an error message o Assigning layer lists with comma to a variable could not be saved in a flow. In

case of using global variable for layer lists, only the value in front of the firstcomma was kept during save and load of the flow file. This issue is resolved.

o After using CTRL+C the Hotkeys sometimes no longer worked. This has beenfixed.

o Flow can't be loaded because of long string in LAYERSET: The import of flowfiles with very large lists layers in an extract module caused BEAMER to crash,this issue is resolved.

· PECo Unexpected asymmetry (corner treatment) for simple shape PEC. Algorithm

adapted to improve symmetry.

o Shape PEC - Crash in VisibilityPolygon() due to input poly with 2 equalvertices: Shape PEC stability enhancement.

o PSF View - Gaussian Separation Value display. The mid range cumulativeenergy was displayed too low if one of the gaussian gammas was shifted to thelong range part of the PSF. This has been corrected.

o Fit of PSF differs between MC3 & TRACER/BEAMER. The fitting reliabilityfor PSFs has been improved. The algorithm behind now computes multiplecandidate solutions with different optimizer settings to get the best fit.



· EXTRACT

o Cell Extraction Dialog showed a Debug Warning. This has been resolved.

o Overflow Error in the EXTRACT Module. In the case of doing an extract withextent mode minimum, which results in an empty layout, the extent box was setto an uninitialized box. This uninitialized box caused and overflow error duringexecution of a transform. Now such an extract operation results with an extentbox with lower left corner is 0,0 and upper right corner is 0,0.

o During region extract of multiple boxes or with exclude region it could happenthat geometries intersecting with 2 touching extract boxes were cut into pieces.This issue has been resolved.

· HEAL o In an hierarchical layout operation, under certain conditions elements could get

lost. This occured in case of:? Cell A is called with a certain offset in one cell B, this cell a does not

interact with any other structure/geometry.? The same cell A is called with the same offset in a cell C and this cell C is

called in cell B.? Cell C has an interaction with another structure/geometry so that it has to

be flattened

· VIEWERo Viewer/Properties/Dose Colors/Get Limits from Layout. The Get Limits from

Layout button is now working as expected.o In the VIEWER, the input File Name is correctly displayed in the Cell

Information area.

· FDA in Python assigns doses to all elements. The FDA module has an improvedlogging feature, the layer-to-dose assigned values are written into the log file. GDSfiles generated with BEAMER with the dose-to-property option were loaded withthe wrong dose values if in one file a dose of 1.0 and only one larger dose valueoccurred. In the re-imported gds file all elements had the large dose value. Thisissue has been resolved.

· FRACTURE in Python. Two parameters 'FractureTolerance’ and‘TraversalDirection’ were not initialized correctly. Now resolved.

· Grid Module Information should give the design units of the layout. Database Unitsnow shown in µm in the Cell Information area.

· The issue that file names with a blank used in the FDA or Mapping module had notbeen loaded correctly from a ftxt file is resolved.

· Automatic Floating Fields Drops Data. This issue occurred for any export driverusing a very high ~0.1nm resolution and small field size ~50um. The issue has beenresolved by limiting the size of the positional matrix grid. Exceeding the limit willcause the grid to become more coarse (field placement accuracy). In turn theexport step will be executed faster.

103Release Version


· JEOLo Shot display of BEAMER for the JEOL formatters was not correct for the 6300

group, the shot placement from 9300 was shown.For a proper calculation of the shot positions, the shot pitch, the minimalresolution of the machine and the machine type are written in the jdi files. Onlywhen such a jdi file is available is the JEOL shot display possible. If JEOL fileswith incomplete jdi files are loaded the 9300 shot positioning is used.

o JDF write Time estimation. Times display improved: i.e. no longer displays 1hour, 39 minutes, 60 seconds!

o JDF View only shows the bounding box of the data and not the fields. The fielddisplay in the VIEWER is now showing the correct field boundaries for JEOLjobdeck import. In previous versions not the field borders, but the boundingboxes of the geometries were shown.

o Error message during JEOL cell to field export, solved in current release.o Could not load flow with Empty JobdeckFooter in the JDF Export. In case of

an empty footer in the JEOL express jobdeck export the flow could not bereloaded. The export has been improved,so that a newly exported flow can bere-imported.

· Raitho Applying a TRANSFORM rotation on re-imported GPFs could cause that

arrayed elements were not properly rotated so that they maintained theiroriginal position.

o Using manually defined sequences with the sequence offset command beforethe main command block caused a wrong interpretation of the positioning andtherefore an error during processing of the EXPORT.

· CRESTECo During Crestec export the file names are cut so that the 30 character limit is

guaranteed

1.12 v4.7

1.12.1 v4.7.4

Solved Issues

· PECo Geometries on layers not selected for correction were sometimes fractured (this

has to do with the fact that the correction divides the layout into tiles andprocesses the layout tile by tile; the fracturing would then happen at these tileborders). If these elements are used for manual field definitions, this would leadto wrongly positioned manual fields and an increased field count.

o Geometries on layers not selected for correction were dropped if they wereoutside of the influence region of the geometries to be corrected.

· GPF Exporto In case of selecting ‘writing order’, rectangles larger than the maximum figure

size and in parallel smaller than the subfield size (this can only happen in sub-resolution mode) were exported twice.



1.12.2 v4.7.3

Enhancements

· Shape PECo Performance and quality improvements of the Shape PEC operation .

Solved Issues

· About Dialogo The build number was missing in the About box.

1.12.3 v4.7.2

Enhancements

· VEP header info expandedo The VEP Header field “Converter_Version” now provides the BEAMER version

number. In addition, it now reports "BEAMER, GenISys GmbH" instead of"BEAMER".

Changes

· Extracto The cell names in the Cell Extract Dialog were abbreviated too much. This length

has now been adjusted.

Solved Issues

· 3D PECo For very large patterns (in the range of some 10GB), the 3D surface PEC

sometimes crashed.· HIMT exporto The conversion scripts generated by the HIMT export now generate the proper Unix

line endings.

1.12.4 v4.7.1

Solved Issues

· A layout integrity was fixed which may cause loss of layout data for the hierarchicalNOT operation under the following layout conditions:o One of the cells has references in the following combination:

§ an array reference which is called with an 90, 180 or 270 degree rotationand does not overlap with any other geometry or reference

§ a reference parallel to and non-intersecting with the array referenceabove

Enhancements

· The "pixel time" field was added to the GPF output log information · Additional file extensions *.csf, *.gds2, and *.db were added to the GDS import

dialog

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1.12.5 v4.7.0

Enhancements:

Layout operation:· The Import of GDS is faster

o The GDS Import is faster especially for highly irregular files.

· TXL format extension o The ellipse command, used to define ellipses, has been added to the TEXTLIB

import Formatter.· Importing a GDS with Multiple Top Cells

o Importing a GDS with multiple top cells will produce a warning in theError/Warnings Panel. Files imported with multiple top cells now produce awarning. Users are alerted that multiple top cells exist and are advised to extractthe cells they require for exposure

· Multiple Cell Extractiono Multiple Cell Extraction is now possible with one Extract module. The Extraction

of multiple cells is made possible by a browse button that opens a list of cellnames, where multiple cells can be easily selected.

· Merge Memory Demando The memory required during MERGE operations has been optimized to allow

better performance the merge of patterns.· Extent Management

o The extent for Export with manual, floating fields and multi-pass is cleaned up§ GPF and Elionix: earlier versions did grow the extent (symmetrically); with

v4.7, the extent is no longer grown§ Jeol and VEP: If the extent has to be grown (because of a field partially

outside of the extent) than it is grown by a full field size (was half fieldbefore). That keeps for manual fields the position of the remainder fields.

§ Importing of machine formats maintains the extent including the individualfield extents

§ Extract, Merge, Size, FDA, Filter maintain cell-extent

WARNING: The extent change may lead to changed position of field cuts when usingmanual fields. Please check your sensitive flows using manual field positioning.

PEC:· PEC layer control

o PEC Layer Control can be found in the General tab. It allows the user to definelayers to be corrected. Layers not selected in "Correction Layer Selection" areexcluded from PEC and saved to the result unaltered. By default all Layers "*"are selected. Layers not selected in Advanced tab “Long Range Fracture LayerSelection" will be saved without further LR fracturing. SR Fractures arepreserved. By default all Layers "*" are selected.

· Faster long-range PEC for very large arrayso The LR PEC is faster for large arrays (e.g. photonic crystals) by leveraging

hierarchy in the correction.· Advanced Minimum Figure Size (MFS)

o The MFS can be defined separately for Long Range (LR) and Short Range (SR)PEC. This facilitates coarse fracturing for LR-PEC and fine fracturing for SR-PEC at the same time to optimize the number of fractures.

· Lower Dose Limit for PECo In the Accuracy tab of the PEC dialog, the minimum dose factor value is now

active for both SR- and LR-PEC. BEAMER performs the LR-PEC and SR-PECsequentially. The specified lower limit is applied in each step assuring that thefinal result obeys the specified limit. The dose values below the specified



minimum dose are merged to the minimum dose class without adjusting theinfluence to neighbors. This feature is particularly useful for eliminating resistresidue in large pads caused by low doses.

WARNING: The correction result has changed from the previous BEAMER version.The minimum dose was ignored for the long range correction in v4.6. In v4.7, theminimum dose limit is adjusted for both LR and SR correction.

· Enhanced selection/visualization of PSFs in Archive overviewo When using PEC, the selected PSF from the archive is now highlighted in green.

The PSF is viewed at left side by showing the long, mid and short-range part orthe PSF. Adjusting the short-range separation point, mid-range activationthreshold or effective short range blur FWHM will be reflected immediately in thePSF visualization.

· 3D-Edge PEC with variableso 3D-Edge PEC can now be used with variables in the rel. Dose column to

dynamically generate 3D-Edge corrected patterns.

JEOL Jobdeck support:· The Jobdeck generation for JEOL has been strongly enhanced by

o Support for Dose Matrix Generation§ The Jobdeck export is now capable of creating dose matrices more

efficiently. The new column "Dose Scaling" has been introduced to allow thespecification of a list of multiplication factors.

§ Calibration Menu Name for PATH

o The Jobdeck Export Dialog has been extended to allow the Specification of theCalib Menu Name for the PATH command.§ Import and viewing of the JDF file shows the dose modulation of the

patterns called from within the JDF file§ The Jobdeck Export has been improved to allow multiple Selection of Files

and to Export/Import a list of Pattern definitions via text file. The text file hasto provide a tab-separated list for each pattern assignment column.

§ Dose matrix assigned from top to bottom (instead of bottom to top)§ Necessity of a jdi file in case of a dose matrix removed, the necessary

information needs to be generated automatically inside BEAMER.

Solved Issues

· Snapping did not always function properly, especially when using lower zoom levels.This has been corrected.

· Missing shape in bias operation on a polygon with small peak.o Positively biasing polygons with very narrow spikes/bridges/threads with a width

of 1 resolution unit or less resulted in unwanted results. These areas are nowtreated as being close to zero and are eventually removed.

· Error during Import – GDSIIo Issues occurred when importing GDSII files upon detecting duplicate cell

definitions. Multiple definitions are now detected, the last definition is used (priordefinitions are discarded), and a warning is issued that informs the user of this.In addition IMPORT has been extended to also accept names with 'µ' characters

· When performing a multipass, a problem occurred when the Y-offset was set tozero. Unfortunately this was not obeyed and a Y-offset was visible in the output. Thegoal here was to expose gratings without any stitching. This has been fixed.

· Measure line vanishes.

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o A problem occurred during CD measurement whereby the measuring linevanished. This has been corrected.

· Incorrect representation of dose classes using FDA with only one dose assignment.This has been corrected.

· On importing a gds file which included layers to define the area selected for thedefinition of manual fields and using a layer-selective HEAL, sometimes additionalnon-intentional cuts made in such field-definition layers. This was not a general healproblem, and has since been resolved.

· Using a short range PEC on a pattern with a very fine database unit (0.01nm)caused an internal overflow error because of database resolution issues. This hasbeen corrected.

· The Python code for the AND module now has an option to control the hierarchicalprocessing.

Changes

· Allow a negative increment to be used when generating a sequence. o When generating values for a loop, user could only apply a count in a positive

direction. The start value had to be smaller than the end value. Now in thegenerate loop values dialog a negative step increment is allowed.

· Fracturing of circles with a VEP output. o Now for curve fracturing the hierarchic pre-fracturing is disabled resulting in

correctly fractured trapezoids. For strong hierarchical patterns, this will increasefracturing time

· The fracturing of trapezoids is now more symmetric, this influences the resultsespecially for beam step size/ shot pitch fracturing with a large Beam/Shot size. Forexample circles fractured with curved fracturing show a more symmetric result.

· Export module (VEP, EBPG) Extent Mode has the renamed attribute "SymmetricAbout the Design Origin" which was originally “Symmetric”

· Width and height of the Bbox is now available in the VIEWER: double right click on apolygon with right mouse button gives the relevant information.

· The Coverage is the area of structure related to the area of the Bbox is given in thelog file.o The information about the extent related coverage is shown directly after the

extent of the layout as: Extent related Cov.· The hierarchic layout operations have been improved, cases with overlaps of arrays

with polygons or references are treated more efficiently. A reference overlapped bya second reference, and where the geometries in the second reference do notintersect with the bounding box of the first reference now keep the first reference.The NOT operation does not gain from this improvement.

· Note: FWR files and LDB files created with BEAMER 4.7.0 cannot be loaded witholder BEAMER versions.

· The PNG Export from VIEWER or Image Viewer limits the size to 32768 x32768pixels to prevent system lockup during generation of the bitmap.

1.13 v4.6



1.13.1 v4.6.6

Solved issues

· Elionix Export : The optimized circle fracturing was only working when “Curved”fracture mode was selected in conjunction with “CPG” conversion. This constraintis now removed and selecting “Curved” fracturing is sufficient.

· Elionix Export : Opening and Re-Opening the parameters dialog resulted in anerror message that had no impact to the setup but was confusing. This issue is nowfixed.

· Elionix Export : Using variables in the Export module is now possible.· Elionix Export: The base dose is written as comment into a CON file. During CON

import, the “Read from File” option will use this base dose value whereas not usingthe “Read from File” option will overwrite the base dose with the user specifieddose value. For both cases, the actually used value will be written to the log file

· Elionix Import : The SCON format extent information was not properly read back,and the pattern extent was set to the minimum bounding box of the pattern. Thisissue is resolved.

1.13.2 v4.6.5

Solved issues

· The JEOL Import speedup introduced in 4.6.4 unfortunately had a memory leakthat stalled the import on patterns that had a large number of fields (severalthousands). That memory leak is now fixed.

1.13.3 v4.6.4

Enhancements

· DXF Import now allows to join adjacent open polygons within a distance specifiedby a tolerance value set by the Snapping Range parameter.

· DXF Import now fully supports splines.· The tolerance of the curved fracturing mode is displayed in nm for the Fracture,

Export GPF, Export JEOL, Export VEP, Export Elionix CON, Export CRESTECCON and Export HIMT SDF modules.

· The LOOP can now collect layout results at the END LOOP module. This option isenabled in the loop setup and allows the further processing of the collected afterthe loop is completed. The LOOP variable values are written to the log file and theprogress bar now also updates properly.

· JEOL Import performance (v30, v51) has been improved - files with a largenumber of dose classes are up to a factor of 15 faster.

Changes

· Up to now, the DXF Import „Curve Conversion“ parameter was sometimesincorrectly used. If the DXF had its own internal units (and BEAMER was told touse them), the circle conversion still used the unit specified in the database gridfield. For example, the dialogs defaults in conjunction with DXF internal unit ofAngstrom would lead to a circle conversion tolerance of 1 Angstrom instead of1nm (the circle conversion tolerance of 1nm would be applied to the database gridvalue of 1nm that is specified in the dialog leading to a conversion tolerance of 1

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database unit. Since the real database unit is Angstrom, the result would be aconversion tolerance of 1 Angstrom). Now the circle conversion tolerance will beapplied correctly in case of DXF internal units, leading to a different digitization ofcircles and arcs.

Solved issues

· JDF export now limits the ASSIGN command to a maximum of 80 characters perline. Commands that contain more than 80 characters are broken into multiplelines.

· JDF import now supports special characters usually used for separating commandslike the Minus ("-") sign.

· JEOL exporting of an un-corrected pattern using "shot pitch fracturing", "scaledose range" and "use existing dose classes" options prevented the export fromexecution, reporting back that a corrected pattern would be expected. This is nowfixed.

· In case of floating fields with a pattern extent asymmetric against the bounding boxof the geometries the growing of the extent was not symmetric. This error wasintroduced in BEAMER 4.6.3.

· When exporting to the JEOL format using floating fields and the design resolutionis not a multiple of the field size, it is possible that data could be split into two mainfields even though it could fit within a single main field. This is now fixed.

· Exporting in JEOL using Multipass and Shot Pitch Fracturing together has lostelements during export. This is now fixed.

· A successive export a to J51 file would append the new data to a previousexported J51 file of the same name instead of completely overwriting the file.Successive exports now overwrite any previously exported files of the same name.

· During MEBES export, in case the start segment exceeded the record size, anadditional offset to the next record was computed incorrectly. This issue has beenresolved.

· The memory demand PSF fitting has reduced allowing it's usage on low profilecomputers.

· When the option "Copy Log- and Flow File to Export File" is enabled, running anEdit module in BEAMER as the first module in BEAMER under CentOS5 threwan error. The issue is now fixed.

1.13.4 v4.6.3

Enhancements

· Export to the OASIS format is now available. It will export any pattern to theOASIS format with basic compression capabilities. The OASIS file format iscapable to intelligently stores geometries by implementing the use of repetitionflags for layer, datatype, x-position, y-position, width and height. The OASISexport driver does not reorder elements in order to make better use of theserepetitions. It also does not use the OASIS internal zLib block compression.

· Behavior change from earlier versions: the VEP export mode "Curved" nowproduces curved trapezoid in case the detection can find approriate circlesegments.The option relies on having closed polygonal shapes not pre-fracturedinto trapezoids, and is therefore available only for the "Meander" export mode.



Background: when using the “Curved“ mode, the user explicitly allows BEAMERto approximate polygons by circle segments within a specified tolerance(„Tolerance“ defines the maximum deviation for any vertex from thecalculated/detected circle segment). Larger tolerance values would accept morepolygons to be converted to curves, , too large tolerance values could result in anerroneous interpretation of the shapes.In earlier versions, the „Curved“ mode would detect curves, and fracture them torectangles/trapezoids aligned with the picked resolution and VRU. Still, snappingthe curves to the resolution grid, snapping issues would show up, particularly onsmall circle rings. With the current version, these detected curves are exported ascurved trapezoids.

· The AND module is now faster with hierarchical processing. By default, this optionis disabled to maintain backwards compatability. With hierarchical processingenabled the AND module is able to maintain the hierarchy if a pattern with a largedegree of hierarchy is combined with a flat pattern. The main application speed-upwas focused on AND-ing simple but large arrays with flat overlapping geometries.

· The Transform module does not alter the shape order of a pattern if the data isshifted, mirrored in X and/or Y or rotated by 90, 180 or 270 degrees.

· Long range- and 3D PEC performance has been improved for large concavepolygons (e.g. zone plates, wave guide, 3D lense applications).

· Viewing a PSF in the PSF plot view displays the stack information of the PSF orthe file name to easily know the source of the PSF again.

· The option to display the writing order of the elements in the layout viewer is nowavailable for all types of pattern. It displays the order the elements inside of thedatabase. For a module in front of an export this shows the later writing order.

Solved issues

· A crash has been resolved using the same user flow (containing custom exportsettings) for exporting patterns on different work tabs. The first usage was workingwell but the second usage caused BEAMER to crash.

· Process loading effect (PLE) development rates were not interpolated correctlyfrom the PLE table, creating incorrect e-beam simulation results. This issue is nowfixed.

· Simulating with PSFs that had no long range energy contribution (e.g. for thinmembranes) the convolution with the beam blur lead to an error message.

· Importing a FWR with ebeam and metrology data lead to metrology resultduplication in the measurement tables.

· Fixed a memory error in large/long PEC computations, where the internal memorymanagement miscounted the memory used.

· In the JEOL export, using a user defined extent in conjunction with floating fieldsproduced a requests to adapt the extent to the current value plus half the main fieldsize. Unfortunately, the adapted extent lead to the same request, so thiscombination could not be used at all. The range check is now corrected.

· In JEOL Export a check was missing in the cell to field mode to ensure that amanual defined user extent includes all data of the pattern.

· While using a variable in the export Jeol dialog it was not possible to open thedialog again, this issue is resolved.

· In BEAMER v4.6.2, 3D-PEC with short range enabled threw an error. This hasnow been fixed.

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· Canceling the 3D PEC while intermediate data was written to the harddrive causeBEAMER to crash

· Using PEC with user defined dose classes reported the accuracy incorrectly in thelog file. While the actual accuracy can be very fine, it was reported much coarser.

· Exporting to the LDB format with "Copy Log- and Flow File to Export File"enabled caused an error. This is now fixed.

· Having two (in principal) identical flows in BEAMER using the same numericalPSF for PEC and differing only in a GRID module in one of them (that would putthe pattern on a different database unit), resulted in significantly differentcorrection results. For performance reasons, BEAMER performs a numerical PSFanalysis and stores that result in memory. This precomputed table should dependon the pattern database grid. The bug was that it didn’t which lead to the observeddifferences in the correction. Exporting a 'ldb' file with the 'copy logfile to result'option switched on, the error message: 'OperationResultDBase does not supportthis method' was reported.

· Applying a Size or a Filter operation on a PEC result (with arrayed elements thatcame from an OASIS file or from a machine format file), the arrayed elementswere not processed and passed directly to the result without any modification.

· Corner-PEC now also allows the use of loop variables.

1.13.5 v4.6.2

Enhancements

· Elionix F125-50B tool support· OASIS Import has been enhanced for speed. It is now about 30% faster.

Solved issues

· In GPF export using fracture mode sequence and optimize writing order on patternwith several different rings or circles inside of one field exported an rectangleinstead of a circle or ring. This is fixed.

· VEP export of an array with a pitch not fitting to the resolution needed a largeamount of memory, because during flattening the data BEAMER tried to keep thefull array in the memory. This memory issue is resolved.

· The dose value displayed in the viewer was rounded, the dose value saved for theelement was not rounded. This made filtering of elements according to doseclasses difficult. This is fixed by adjusting the displayed dose value to 4 digits andsaved dose value to the same.

· While performing a PEC after a Heal on a complex pattern with tiny gaps it couldhappen that a tiny gap, which in a high resolution would result in a hole in a polygon,is snapped to a small self-overlap causing an error message during the PECexecution. This issue is fixed.

· The issue of Heal not removing dose values of single lines is fixed.· The Size operation now keeps dose values for sized and unsized elements.· PEC correction generated double exposure data on single lines which have been

exactly at internal tile border by generating it in both tiles. This is fixed.· Resetting loop crashed BEAMER when clicking the Run To button multiple times.

A second click on the run to option caused to run in an endless loop. The Loopmodule does not support a run to option any more.

· Running Optimizer, cancel the run and reset the module caused a crash. This issueis resolved.



· During running a flow it was possible to reset already computed modules, thiscaused a crash. It is no longer possible to reset a running flow.

· The e-beam simulation using high resolution (1nm) and large area (> 10µm x10µm) resulted into shifted image at top. The data handling issue for pixel numberslarger than 60 Million has been fixed.

1.13.6 v4.6.1

Solved issues

· In the GPF export, while using the Sequence file option, the checks for correctnessof the replavement rectangle have been to restrictiv, error messages without anyneed have been generated sometimes.

· Fix a crash of BEAMER on executing an Export module if in the in the 'Properties'dialog the option 'Copy Log- and Flow File to Export File' was set.

· Fixed broken LWM Export dialog in VIEWER.

1.13.7 v4.6.0

Please note:

With this version we have shifted for Windows installations the documentation and example folder

into the global documents. Please adjust your paths under FILE / Properties to point to new folders

under <Global Documents>/.GenISys/BEAMER/v4.6.0 for the manual files. The PSFs are now

located under <Global Documents>/.GenISys/TRACER/2D.Archives.

For more details please refer also to the Installation Guideline available for download at

www.genisys-gmbh.com Support area.

Enhancements

· New VIEWER toolbar buttons· A new button maximizes the view area by hiding the tabbed panes on the left

and bottom of the VIEWER.· Configure/enable/disable the VIEWER grid with ease

o Configure/enable/disable the Shot View with easeo Quickly jump to or obtain the coordinate position in the VIEWER.

· The VIEWER now shows the dose assignments within a shape. This feature canbe enabled or disabled via the property menu. Depending on the system, thescreen drawing may be slower with this feature enabled.

· All tables in the dialogs have an "Insert Row" button to insert an empty rowabove the currently selected row.

· The Vistec GPF Export features an additional fracturing mode called Sequence.This is helpful for small circles and rings where shots can be placed with higherprecision using a series of sequences and jumps rather than with shapes. Similarto Curved fracturing, this mode will try to recognize circles and rings andgenerate a sequence instead of shapes in the output. The size of the circlediameter has to be less than subfield/2 for sequence conversion.

· JEOL job deck support

http://www.genisys-gmbh.com

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o The JEOL Express Jobdeck export has been added to the list of availableexport formats. This option allows the user to easily generate complexpattern arrangements on the wafer/mask.

o The JEOL Jobdeck Import is now capable of assigning Shot Rank valuesdefined in the Jobdeck Data to the referenced Chips. In case that theJobdeck does not provide Shot Rank Data, the corresponding JDI File istaken as a reference.

o The JEOL Jobdeck Structure Names have been extended to also provideinformation upon the imported binary pattern file name (v30 filename).

o Mark positions can be displayed after JDF is loaded. o Jobdeck export also includes a write time estimator. It is based on the dose

weighted pixel area (sum over all elements of real exposure area multipliedby the dose factor), the number of elements and the machine characteristics(e.g. stage speed, settling times etc) plus the exposure settings (Dose,current). The statistics and the write time estimation will be reported to thelog file.

· The JEOL short rank table name can now be customized in the JEOL exportparameter dialog

· Shot Pitch information for JEOLv30 is now included in JDI files. JDI files noware also generated for uncorrected patterns. This shot-pitch information is usedfor as default settings of shot viewing of v30 files.

· The Jeol 01 export and import drivers have been extended to support dosevalues and shot rank information. The export dialog comes now with a newchoice between "Layer to Shot Rank" and "Dose to Shot Rank". In the lattertwo additional fields have to be specified: Maximum number of Shot Ranks andSingle line Shot Ranks defining the maximum resp single line number of shotranks. Running the export with "Dose to Shot Rank" will also generate a<patternname>.jdi file containing the Shot Rank Table in Jobdeckrepresentation.

· The Elionix export drivers for the ECA-V3 - F125-50B, G100 has been addedand the "ECA-V2 F125" format choice has been changed to "ECA-V2 (co7)F125-60A"

· The Fracturing of polygons has been improved to avoid top-inserted-cuts.Previously holes within a polygon were inserted by propagating a cut upwardsto the polygon. Now the positioning of these cuts has been optimized to connectto the nearest edge, thus avoiding long cuts and small slivers.

· The performance for importing very large files has been improved significantly.For example, a 5GB TXTLIB file that previously took 15hrs to import now onlytake 20 minutes.

· E-beam simulations with a numerical PSF have improved performance by thebuffering the convolution of the PSF with the effective blur.

· Linux Import dialogs now support file extensions with lower and upper case.· Cluster Load balancing has been improved for HEAL, PEC, Bias and Shape-

PEC.

Changes

· Disabled the warning that a PSF from the archive is selected that doesn’t exists forthe Gaussian and Numerical PSF modes.. It only shows up in case the PSF archiveis used.



· For the multi-view and the global viewer, if a module and a splitter directly beloware selected, the viewer will not show the layout of the split module any more,since this layout is already displayed for the proceeding module.

Solved issues

· A uni-directional Bias operation (X or Y direction) did not work correctly onhierarchical layouts where cells were referenced at a 90° or 270° rotation. Thesecells were biased in the wrong direction.

· In the PEC dialog, the name of the numerical PSF was not editable; this issue isresolved.

· When using a per layer Bias, layers that were not biased created unintendedoverlaps. This issue is now resolved.

· BEAMER would crash if a PEC including short range correction was canceledwhile in operation. This is now fixed.

· When using Shape PEC, the long influence range was compute incorrectly for therare case that the backscatter contribution was very small, which would crashBEAMER. This is now fixed.

· Doses far below 0.5 were generated using short range PEC on a multi-layerpattern. These very low doses would violate the pattern generator clock for theuser. This is now fixed.

· E-Beam simulations using a numerical PSFs have been inaccurate in rare cases ofcombinations of PSF and slanted geometries.

· Running LOOP with an EBEAM module could lead to a crash in case thesimulation areas was large and the memory demand was very high. The crash isnow avoided and an informative message is handed.

· Python code for Process Loading in the PEC and Open Area Bias Model has beenenabled

· Short Range PEC no longer will unnecessarily fracture shapes that are in the samedose class.

· The short range correction algorithm uses now an improved version for the patternevaluation. In case of corrections done on elements that were in size near the alphavalue the correction proves to deliver more symmetric results. Previously ithappened that patterns composed of several small elements received a non-symmetric correction result.

· A 3D PEC were the contrast curve had more than one value for a resist height andsubsequent different dose values for that height gave an erroneous correctionresult.

· The SR PEC duplicated the pattern in case a layer selective Short RangeCorrection was executed.

· With Shape PEC is could happen that two neighboring tiles received a significantlydifferent dose. The trigger was a change in pattern density by the Shape PECchanging the dose assignments lookups.Import of ctxt files wasn't possible due to amissing filter in the IMPORT

· Import of PSF files with a comment charater '#' failed.· Importing a region extract table from a file crashed BEAMER when variables were

defined within that file.· Display of the characters '25' in the global variable dialog for a defined variable has

been removed.· Formally, export to JEOL performance on a cluster was very slow. This has been

improved and is comparable to a multi-threaded JEOL export.

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· The EOS Mode definitions for the JEOL Export did not change with the selectedEOS mode; this is now fixed.

· EOS Modes in the JEOL J51 formatter for the JEOL 6000FS/E were disabled. Thisis now fixed so the EOS mode can be selected.For JEOL format using floatingfields on an pattern that contained of single lines only, the field produced wasempty.Export a flat pattern processed by an hierarchical FRACTURE cause theEXPORT to a machine format to decrease in performance significantly.

· Multipass generated neighboring fields that had a large traveling distance betweenthem. The large amount of time between field exposure added the machine drift tothe later exposed fields thus destroying the shape fidelity of the pattern. The issuehas been resolved.

· Previously, the number of features within one field was limited to 500000 toprevent excessive memory consumption for writing order optimization. Thisresulted in a non-optimized writing order with only a few shapes ordered properly. The limit has been removed so that all elements within a field are properly sorted.

Known Issues

· Applying a GRID module on a pattern that has a strong hierarchy using a grid valuelarger than the design grid, specifically using a grid value that is not aligned to thecell reference offset, it may happen that the cells snap more than one database unit.A case where this may also happen is the usage of a hierarchical FRACTUREfollowed by a GRID since the FRACTURE produces also a cell hierarchy .

1.14 v4.5

1.14.1 v4.5.3

Solved issues

· VEP Export and PECo Exporting a dose corrected pattern to VEP or FRE with floating or manual fields

could result in wrong dose assignments in the exported file if the element withthe smallest and/or highest dose was a rectangle. This issue is now fixed.

1.14.2 v4.5.2

Enhancements

· Whether Short Range PEC feature is enabled or disabled is now added to the loginformation. Additionally the minimum and maximum allowed dose values are alsologged when applicable

· When importing of GDS, Textlib, DXF and CIF the "Keep Element Order" checkbox has been introduced in the Import dialog. This prevents BEAMER fromcreating the internal spatially sorted search structure. An Export directly attachedto the Import will export the elements in the same sequence as the original design. Viewing or performing an operation such an import module might be significantslower than the normal import. The JEOL export Formatter does some internalsorting, therefore the resulting pattern does not follow the input sorting completely.



Changes

· The Extent behavior for a BIAS using layer wise processing has been changed tonever shrink the existing Extent but grow if needed. This prevents the Extent fromshrinking since the layer that is negatively biased will not change the extentespecially if another layer actually defines the Extent. Otherwise, this would result inshapes that would be outside of the extent.

Solved issues

· Generalo Global variables are now saved in the recovery flow so that BEAMER restore

them after a crash.· PEC

o In the 4.4.x release the GUI showed the GPU development work as option forselection. This GUI control was removed in 4.5 but any flow generated beforewith that option true wasn't loadable by BEAMER 4.5. This is now fixed.

· Export o Variables in an JEOL Export dialog caused the dialog not to open anymore due

to a consistency check. If variables are used within the Export dialog, theconsistency check will be disabled.

o When viewing exported layouts via the Export module, the the dose rangeinformation was missing. This lead to a failure to automatically get the doselimits if the function "automatically get the dose limits" was enabled.

o Viewing an Export of a loaded .fwr file works as expected. However, if variablesare within that Export file name, viewing is not possible.

o Elements spanning more than one subfield in one direction are now taken intoaccount for the writing order optimization.

· Running the HEAL, BIAS or NOT module using layer wise processing on a layoutwith multiple layers, the layers not undergoing a layer wise operation would lose theirdose information

· The Size operation distorted pattern positions in case the layout was composed ofmirrored and rotated elements (stored within the format description)

· In case a layer wise Bias was used and the layer as containing so many elementsthat BEAMER had to process it by tiling the elements at the tile borders wereincorrectly biased.

· Running a layer wise operation on an inhomogeneous pattern for the HEAL, BIAS,NOT or P-XOR can result in pattern loss in case the soft frame is greater 0. Theinternal tiling for processing the pattern can cut pattern elements leading to a wrongtreatment of those

117Release Version


1.14.3 v4.5.1

Solved issues

· Help Manual – Some help buttons in the GUI dialogs did not work.

· Export GPF / VEP / V30 - In case of using manual field definition by region layers inthe layout and selecting the new “Writing Optimization” option the rectangles inregion layers defining the fields were exported as part of the exposure file insteadbeing skipped.

1.14.4 v4.5.0

Enhancements

· Major usability and productivity enhancements of BEAMER user interface andflow handlingo Multiple Workspace Tabs

§ Enables to open multiple flows in parallel in different tabs§ Enables copy and paste of modules from one to other workspace tab

o Drag and Drop of flows into the GUI opens flows in a new workspace tab, dragand drop of multiple flow files opens multiple workspace tabs

o Drag and Drop of layout files (GDS, DXF) into a workspace automaticallyopens a layout Import module.

o Undo-Redo is enabled§ restores deleted flows in a session§ undoes modified module parameter

o Inline Comments§ Inline comments allow to provide more information for a specific module or

flow§ Comments can be enabled / disabled at the module and at the global level

o Flows can now be saved / loaded along with the results via the FILE / IMPORT/ EXPORT dialog (file extension *.fwr). Note please that these files can getvery huge as each module carries the layout data as a footprint. (2259)

o Saving a flow will now also save all the user modules that are used in this flow.This way, a loaded flow will always run.

o A new EXIT module was added to allow to close BEAMER from within a flowin GUI mode.

o Flows are now loaded even if there have corrupted settings and/or user moduleswere used that are no longer present.

o The log information for the executed flows can now be cleared using the VIEWmenu option for clearing.

o Global variables§ It is now possible to directly define module parameters for flows§ A “global variable” button brings up a dialog for setting the values of these

parameterso The variable concept of BEAMER has been extended. A variable named

"%EnvVar_abc%" searches first in the local defined variable list, if the variablecannot be found a search in the system environment variables for "abc" is done.

o With the environment variable GENISYS_BEAMER_DEFAULTS anadditional directory for searching default settings of the modules can bedefined. The local .GenISys folder is used first, if nothing was found there, thenGENISYS_BEAMER_DEFAULTS will be searched.

o Import & Export now skips the file dialog in case a file name & type hasalready been defined. All Import & Export parameter dialogs now can reach



the file dialog from the General tab. In the parameter dialog it is possible toselect a new file respectively save with a new file name. To change the file typeof an Import or Export the ‘Reset Parameters’ from the context menu must beused.

o Layout Viewer enhancements§ The new dose tab visualizes the dose classes and allows the control to turn

individual dose classes off and on in the view. Dose classes can be assigneda different color to highlight them.

§ A checkbox is available on this tab that allows the VIEWER to determinethe min and max dose values and adjust the dose range plot automatically.

o The field travel can now be visualized by enabling a directional arrow (formachine formats with field information)Codemeter webadmin shows the user,who uses a license if using BEAMER 4.5.0 or later.

· Major enhancements in machine format fracturing o Writing order optimization and viewing for GPF, VEP, V30, Elionix CON

§ The order of exposure within a field is optimized geometrically, meaningbeam jumps (“snow shower”) are avoided. The ordering is machine specific,for some it is a subfield based ordering, for others it is a geometrically shapesorting.

§ It is also now possible to view the traversal path (independent of writingorder control).

§ The General tab of the Export dialog options provides now three choices forfeature ordering: "ArrayCompaction", "NoCompaction" and"WritingOrder". The "ArrayCompaction" is a synonym for the former"Compaction == true". Please be also aware that python scripts have to beadapted.

§ This writing order option requires longer computation time and may resultlarger file sizes, as the compaction is limited to subfield level.

o The Multi-Pass extent handling has been improved for EBPG, JOL & VEP § The selected User Extent is now considered. § An error is issued in case the Multi-Pass option does not fit into the selected

Extent dimensions. § The format type dependent field origin is now considered more accurate the

minimize extent variation during field positioning. § In case the Multi-Pass option changes the original Layout extent, a warning

is issued during export. This warning is issued also in case that the userextent modifies the original extent!

· Layout processing and viewingo Region Extract mode for excluding regions

§ Extract offers now a new region option to extract all but the markedregions. The tone inverse Extract uses the provided regions to remove thosespecific ones from the layout. The clip / touch / within option apply to thisregion.

o Layer-wise processing§ Heal for specified layer(s) only is possible now§ Bias for specified layer, and different bias parameter for different layer is

possible§ Not for specified layer(s) only is possible § PXOR for specified layer(s) only is possible

o The filter module was significantly reworked to allow to specify multiple filters,each on able to output shapes into its own layer

119Release Version


o SIZE function has been added which grows/shirkns shapes individually withouttaking into account adjacent shapes. In other words, while Bias grows/shrinksthe contour of multiple butting shapes, Size will grow/shrink them with noconsideration of butting shapes.

o Region Extract with multiple extraction regions preserves the hierarchy nowo Import of 8bit gray scale png bitmap data format is enabled. The colors/gray

tones are assigned to different layer and can be used for defining gray-tonelithography.

o Bitmap Export is now also enabled for binary E-Beam formats.

· Proximity Correction and Simulation o Shape PEC results are more machine friendly as the trapezoids created take

their original structure into account and thereby avoid the generation of verysmall slithers.

o The PEC dialog has been significantly. Instead of showing the GaussianParameters for a PSF, the user can select the PSF from an archive. The defaultarchive contains all standard PSFs that were delivered as individual PSF inearlier versions. User are able to import their PSFs into the archive. Of course,the previous mode of operation to either specify a PSF through its Gaussianparameters, or by loading a PSF file is still available.

o The PSF for PEC can now be referenced with absolute paths even though thegeneral file handling is using relative paths. This allows a fixed reference to acentral PSF repository. Enable this option under FILE / Properties / ‘Useabsolute path for PSF files’.

o Simulation of diagonal lines has been enabled..o The analysis view window allows to save the viewed data as a text file with tab

separated values.o E-Beam simulation Image Viewer

§ has undergone a major rework. The GUI now presents itself in a leanerviewer with less text and more iconic buttons.· Rarely used functions were moved to the Advanced Settings menu· Only elements relevant for the selected view are displayed· Settings are preserved for all views· Additional plot information is available for a fixed crosshair in the 1D

view (use a left mouse click). Any right click on an intersection betweenthe crosshair and the graph adds the location/slope/log slope at thatintersection to the graph.

· Smoother contour plots in 2D can be now achieved using the contoursettings dialog and switch to manual accuracy. A pixel size of 1 willproduce highly accurate plots at the cost of speed during drawing.

· Automatic min/max adjustment for views· Enhanced save for settings· The input fields for the 2D plane position and for the minimum and

maximum intensity values have been improved. Turning red while forillegal values and update during typing without changing the cursorposition

§ The usability has been strongly enhanced by major rearrangements of menu,removing tabs, buttons, sub-menus and drop-downs.

§ Please read manual for detailed description of the new visualizationinterface and functionality.



o Python libraries for Python 2.4 and 2.6 are now available. As some Linuxsystems don’t support old Python versions a set of different BEAMER Pythonlibraries is made available. The set environment scripts creates links to theLBpy.py libraries to ensure a minimum impact on existing Python scripts.

Changes

· For EXPORT JEOL the manual field placement of the "automatic" extent mode canenlarge the pattern extent by max 0.5 field size in each direction. The enlargement issymmetric, not changing the layout center position. To indicate the modification awarning is issued.

· Manual fields are now checked during closure of the Export dialog opposed to bechecked during the execution of the flow.

· Import now inherits the file name from a previous Export if fit contains a variable.· Exporting with field overlaps now consider the subfield size when calculating field

overlap cuts. The cut point chosen is defined to be a multiple of the subfield size.· CIF Import became more robust by allowing layer names that don’t follow the CIF

specification. They may also contain lower case characters and special symbols,however blank and semicolon cannot be used. A warning is written to the logfile ifthe layer name does not comply with the specification.

· Dose classes below the lowest or above the highest occurring dose cases that arenot used by the layout (e.g. because of an extract) are omitted in the export machineformat. In case the dose classes were manually defined this rule does not apply andthe dose classes are preserved.

· The pixel time representation in the Elionix CCC file has been improved to conformto the value set in the CBC file.

Solved issues

· Using numerical PSFs for simulations lead to a wrong computation of the influencerange. This could cause simulations to fail as the memory demand was set toohigh. The influence range is now set correctly resolving this issue.

· The „Scale Dose Range“ option of the Export Module after a PEC without shortrange could result in dose values below 1.0. The rout cause was a too low dosevalue in the center of large features. This has been fixed so that the lowest scaleddose after long range PEC is now 1.0.

· The shot modulation table (jdi file) for a Jeol Export after a PEC with user defineddose table was resorting the dose classes (dropping not used dose classes andnew dose class numbering), which was against the idea of working with anormalized shot modulation table. The jdi file for user defined dose tables is nowalways the same. One can work with a normalized shot modulation table.

· Hierarchical bias operations on 1 dimensional array with a distance between thestructures smaller than 2 times the bias value created wrong results. In this case thepattern is flattened now.

· IWFL field viewing was not showing the correct main field size and displayed non-square fields.

· Using Floating Fields and the option Center to Field created errors, based onposition and layout data. This is resolved.

· A crash has been fixed that occurred in case the “hold intermediate results” wasdeactivated and a Transform was applied.

· Crash when double clicking a user defined module in the work pane has beenresolved.

121Release Version


· BEAMER now uses the correct coordinates when inserting manual fields.Previously when using manual field while viewing the layout with center to field orlower left could cause a wrong coordinate for the manual field.

· A FDA produced incorrect dose assignments if used in multiply mode and a Healbefore the FDA was present. The Heal broke the dose value table and the FDA raninto assignment errors.

· CEL Import has been improved to report errors during reading more precisely.· Running BEAMER from command line using --flow will now report error messages

properly and not falsely report a successful run. · A rounding artifact at the generation of the resulting layout cells for the OR

operation resulted in the loss of parts of the shapes.· User defined dose classes did not work with SR PEC. Results were set to dose 1.0.

If a LR PEC (meaning the eta was larger than 0) was done the LR + SR PEC wouldreturn LR PEC results only.

· Jeol Export - After applying a PEC on a pattern with single lines which are axisparallel, and overlaps several dose classes it could happen that a resulting singleline contained more than 2 points; in such a case the element was lost during exportto JEOL v30 format.

· RSD Export now gives clearer warning messages during Export.· E-Beam Simulation results were influenced by the database grid. In case of very

large grids results from finer simulation pixels were collapsing into a single databasegrid pixel.

· Extract of multiple regions now preserves the hierarchy of the layout regions thatwere extracted.

· VEP EXPORT now no longer takes the dose value of the manual field layer intoaccount when exporting and generating the dose assignment for trapezoids.

· The process loading correction was ignored in case the PEC needed to apply mid-range correction.

Note: LayoutBEAMER is now named BEAMER. This affects also all script and executablenames within the packages. This may cause issues on your side when you are usingcustom scripts so please check them carefully.

Note: The Windows installer now automatically checks the CodeMeter and Runtimeenvironment. It is likely that you are presented with a CodeMeter Installer during theinstallation of BEAMER 4.5.0

1.15 v4.4

1.15.1 v4.4.4

Enhancements

· Export JEOLo The new 9500FS (100kV) has been added to the list of available JEOL tools.

· Export Elionix o The default behavior using curved fracturing has changed. With CPG turned off

rings will be fractured to trapezoids. In case CPG is turned on single lines willbe used for the exposure.

· VIEWER (Stand Alone)o The VIEWER now supports Vistec (GPF, VEP) and JEOL (v30) formats.



Solved Issues

· Generalo Flows were non-readable in case a blank was used in the MAPPING module

assignment tables.

· PECo Short-Range (SR) PEC overestimated the influence of large shapes in certain

(very rare) scenarios. For instance, if a large figure touched a SR relevantsegment, the SR segment would get assigned an incorrect low dose. This issue isnow fixed by refining the criterion for dose assignment in SR PEC.

o During SR-PEC arbitrary figures are internally decomposed into trapezoids forfaster processing. In some cases these trapezoids snapped to a zero widthcausing errors during the dose assignment calculation.

· Shape PECo For Shape PEC with enabled long range dose correction, a bug was fixed that

skipped the pre-fracturing of polygons. This lead to wrong dose assignments forthose non-fractured polygons that didn’t match the polygons in close proximity.

· 3D PECo An error in pre-processing polygons could lead to wrong dose values. This

occurred if the center of mass of that polygon was outside of the polygonoutline.

· Export JEOLo For the 5500 Series the allowed shot pitch is limited to the pattern unit or an

even multiple of the pattern unit.o Exported files larger than 4GB were corrupted and caused an error during

pcheck on the tool.

· Export Elionixo The view of an Elionix CON file from the EXPORT module wasn’t enabled.

· Export VEPo Previously in the VEP dialog update, handling the check for the field-size being

a multiple of the resolution caused a crash to BEAMER. This is now disabledand the field-size vs. resolution are verified when the dialog is closed with OK.

1.15.2 v4.4.3

Enhancements

· The Minus module performance has been improved by up to a factor of 100 forany angle patterns, e.g. diagonal gratings. The operation preserves layerinformation and overlaps; however dose information is not maintained. Thefollowing flow shows how to preserve dose information during Minus: o 1) Export the layout as a GDSII with the option "Dose to layer" enabled. o 2) Run the Minus operation, which will preserve the layer information. o 3) Export the result layout with the same file name as the original file to

overwrite the prior exported GDSII file.

123Release Version


o 4) Re-import the exported layout and the dose will be derived from theformerly created dose table and combined with the layer information.

· Cluster processingo The Minus, XOR, OR and AND operations can now be executed on a cluster.

Solved Issues

· HEAL o The tile based approach of BEAMER to process large patterns introduced for

complex polygons at the border of these tiles many fractures. Duringsubsequent sorting some of those could get lost especially in case of manypolygons at the y border of tiles. By optimizing the sorting algorithm thatassigns the fractures of polygons to the corresponding tile this issue could beresolved.

· LOOPo Previously, it was not possible to view an exported pattern which contains a

variable in the export file name (e.g. a loop that contains the export module).This limitation is fixed, and the last exported pattern is loaded if the exportmodule is viewed.

o During optimization runs or fast loops in Linux, a segmentation fault wouldoccur. This has now been fixed.

· FILTERo The number of dose classes is minimized if an extract or a filter operation

removes shapes from the layout that has dose classes’ exclusive to said shapes.However, saving such a layout to an LDB file and re-loading it restored all thedose classes, which is not desired. Now, the LDB format keeps only the doseclasses that are used in the pattern after data-prep (and not the original numberof dose classes).

· EXTRACTo The Extract dialog did not keep the proper extent setting if Region extraction

was used with the Extent settings set to "Use Extract Extent" and afterreopening the dialog, changing the extract mode to "Cell Instances" extract. Inthis case the extent mode was not changed. This resulted in a crash duringexecution. Now the extent mode is changed in this situation to "Maintain".

· GPF o When using multipass with a subfield offset in the GPF formatter, subfield

fracturing will now always fracture the pattern such that the shapes are themaximum subfield size. This way, the subfield borders are always at theexpected locations.

o The GPF Sequence file input uses now variables properly.o The GPF export main field settings are checked more thoroughly

§ Originally, the mainfield size of the GPF export was rounded to a 0.001umvalue. Now, the GPF export mainfield size is now more accurate to 6 digits.In addition, the check that the mainfield size is a multiple of the mainfieldresolution uses a tolerance based criteria to be tolerant against roundingerrors.

§ The default value has been improved to fit a multiple of the resolution.



o Sequences were displayed incorrectly in the VIEWER when compared toCView. The GPF sequence misplaced the lines after an absolute JUMP if thesequence was placed with an offset. This discrepancy is now fixed so that thesequence display is accurate in BEAMER as it is in CView.§ Limitation: The Viewer displays the pattern on a main field resolution grid.

Should a sub field positioning be used snapping to the nearest main fieldgrid will occur.

o In case elements were positioned with subfield resolution accuracy instead ofmain field resolution accuracy it could happen that polygons reached beyondthe subfield boundary causing the GPF check to report errors. Now thefracturing has been optimized and the subfield size is adjusted by the positionaloffset to compensate the sub resolution shift

o Previously, when exporting the pattern with floating fields enabled, shapes inthe overlapping field regions would get exposed twice. This issue has now beenfixed so that shapes in the overlapping field regions are only exposed once.

· Elionix CONo The import dialog now has the option to "Create field data from CON file" for

the Elionix CON format. Enabling this option generates an additional text filecontaining a list of all the field positions specified in microns. § The file name is derived directly from the selected CON file name (folder)

with a *.txt extension. If the file already exists (e.g. by a prior export) a sub-dialog will ask the user to replace it.

§ When exporting to the Elionix CON format, the Manual field positioningoption allows the user to select this field placement file to restore theoriginal field placement.

§ This feature has a caveat such that the individual fields cannot overlap.o The Elionix CON export dialog has been extended by the option "Generate

CPG Data". Enabling this option will execute the CPG shape detection. TheCPG detection depends only on this parameter and no longer on the selectedfracturing mode.

o The Elionix export has been extended to support the preservation of the patternposition given by the design. The dialog switch "Keep original Layout Position"has been added. § Please be aware, that for negative coordinates, the resulting CON might be

refused by the Elionix CAD tool.

· Pythono Using the Python code display option for a PEC module, the option

'MinFractureSizeMode' gave an invalid option of 'Automatic | Userdefined'. ThePEC Python code display in the BEAMER GUI has been corrected so that the'MinFractureSizeMode' shows now either 'Automatic' or 'Userdefined'.

o Python commands for importing and exporting generic bitmap (png) files areupdated with the current bitmap implementation in BEAMER

125Release Version


1.15.3 v4.4.2

ATTENTION: The LEDB file format has changed. LEDB files generated with version 4.4.2 cannot

be imported by previous BEAMER versions!

Enhancements

· VIEWERo Number of decimal places for measurements and pick information can be

specified in the Properties / Measurement Dialog.o The Dose colors dialog allows the user to define a visible dose range. This

setting cannot be stored as default settings.o The pick mode can now be toggled by pressing the CTRL key during double

click with the right mouse button. o A toolbar icon for the “get dose limits” functionality has been added.o A toolbar icon for the “snap for pick information” has been added.

· GUIo Flow Handling: The modules display a play icon if they are part of an execution

in progress. Also, it is possible to attach modules to the output port of a modulein execution. The newly attached modules are ran by clicking their “Run To”button.

o The Info panel can be detached from the main GUI.

· FDAo The FDA module can now be used after a previous FDA operation.The "snap

for pick information" mode can now be swapped by pressing the ctrl key duringdouble click with the right mouse button

· FILTER o The filter dialog is now capable of filtering shapes out by dose values (ranges).o The filter dialog has been extended to allow selection of the aspect ratio and the

"rotated" aspect ratio.

· EXPORT VISTEC

o The GPF export driver logs the following information:§ Stage Traversal Distance [mm]: <xxx-direction>, <yyy-direction> -

<absolute random> § Stage Traversal relative to Arrayed Traversal [%]: <xxx-direction>,

<yyy-direction> - <absolute random/absolute meander>o The GPF export driver has been improved to more completely support export

settings where BSS is not a multiple of the Resolution. Please be aware, that inthis case floating subfield and subfield arrays are not utilized and therefore theexposure time can increase significantly. To indicate this, the following warningmessage is issued: Warning: If the selected Beam Step Size is not a multiple ofthe Resolution exposure time may increase significantly.

o The GPF export python does now support automatic updates. Please [email protected] for detailed documentation of the update sequence.

o Viewing imported VEP/FRE files now displays the fields in their writing order



· EXPORT JEOL o According to the available specification, J01 does NOT provide ->oblique

(slanted) lines, but the format itself is not restricted and slanted lines can berepresented in the J01 format. BEAMER supports importing and exporting ofslanted lines in J01 now.

· EXPORT / IMPORT BITMAP o Generic Bitmap PNG export has been enhanced to enable dose modulation in

grey tome. Generic Bitmap Import is now available with grey scale value tolayer and/or dose.

· FRACTUREo The approximation tolerance for the fracturing module is now a separate

parameter. It is NO longer correlated with the beam step size. For existingflows lacking on this new parameter, the BSS is used to define the fracturingtolerance. The fracturing tolerance can be a fraction of the Resolution but iscurrently limited to minimal 0.5 times the resolution.

o The fracturing module is now capable of approximating non 45° slants with45° triangular shapes. For "nearly" diagonal slopes this can significantlyreduce the amount primitives used for shape approximation. Number ofdecimal places for measurements and pick information can be specified inthe Properties / Measurement Dialog.

· EXTRACTo The extract operation now shrinks the used dose range. If the layout becomes

empty any dose classification is removed.

Solved Issues

· EXPORT Generalo Using Multipass in an Export or the Fracture module for large patterns, the

application failed due to large memory consumption. A pattern with a 3mm x4mm extent and a field size of 1000um required 4 GB in 2 path mode and16GB in 4 path mode for bringing the fields in a proper order. The processing ofthe Multipass has been enhanced to better fit into memory to enhance speed.The sorting of the Multipass fields is no longer strictly meander, but it isoptimized to minimize the traversal path. The positions are still strictlymeandering.

· EXPORT VISTECo The Symmetric Extent option in the VEP Export now properly updates its

extent values.o The GPF “x only” trapezium option was not available in case the

VISTECEBPG.ini file has been write-protected area. This is resolved.

· EXPORT JEOLo If the JEOL output 'Pattern Units' where larger than the 'Minimal Resolution' a

JDI dose table was generated with an expanded dose range. This expanded JDIfile is from now on only generated if 'Shot Pitch Fracturing' is selected.

127Release Version


o The dose tables for corrected layouts now only contain the dose range definedby the lowest and highest dose value of the pattern. Obsolete values beyondthat range are disregarded.

o The JDI file was generated for all user defined dose values even if the doseclass was not used. Now the JDI file is only generated for used dose values.

o In JEOL export the amount of data in one field is limited (memory limit definedin Tool tab), in case the export reaches the limit the generated field is closedand a new field re-opened at the same field position. In this case no initial areashot rank information was generated. This results in an error message bychecking the file with the pattern format checker from JEOL. The errormessage was "FLDNXTRANKA, It is necessary to define area shot rankbetween the field definition command and the position setting command."

· FDAo When merging a layout without dose assignment to a layout that has received

its dose values by an FDA, the layout without dose assignment received thelowest dose value of the FDA.

o Running a loop to assign dose values to a layout using the FDA module hasfailed and did not assign the dose values as desired.

· MERGEo Merging layouts that also contained an empty layout is now possible.

· HEALo Performing a hierarchic HEAL with a lot of flat elements (~50000) in a cell, a

reference on the center of such a cell so that in one half the reference overlapswith a flat element and in the other half the reference does not overlap with aflat element, resulted a hierarchic HEAL that can contained an overlap.

· TRANSFORMo A non-integer scaling operation on a hierarchical pattern caused the layout

elements to snap to the nearest grid point and by that changing the layoutextent. As the extent was just scaled by the factor it could occur that layoutdata and updated extent were a mismatch causing for example some exports tofail.

· PECo PEC did not consider overlapping figures in all scenarios. If overlaps were

hidden inside larger figures that were not relevant for short range PECthemselves the overlaps were ignored. Now the presence of overlaps within thealpha range to the outer figure boundaries is detected and short range PECapplied to ensure edge placement accuracy.

o An error 'PEC Error: Cell find error at bottom edge...' was reported in case avery long, nearly vertical line in the pattern data with a height/width ratio >1.0e7 was present .

o In the PEC dialog the resist effects did not work in version 4.4.1, loading oldflows and executing them works correctly, but after editing the PEC dialog theresist effect parameter are not set correctly.

o Using short range PEC, shapes along the tile borders where a major portion ofitself exists in the adjacent tile might not get the proper short range treatment,therefore only receiving a long range PEC dose. This was fixed by a properboundary and overlap treatment.



· E-BEAMo By running a loop of an E-Beam image, opening the matrix result view,

switching to 1d view, setting the locator fixed with the left mouse button,switching to the 2d view, switching to the 1d settings panel and clicking on theanalysis View button caused the BEAMER to crash. This issue has beenresolved; in this situation the analysis view button is not available any more.

o During the reopening the E-Beam dialog the process effects influence rangewas not updated correctly, but set to 1.000.

o During reopening the E-Beam dialog the process effects table was not updatedcorrectly.

· GUIo Units of parameters have been added in dialogs where applicable.o The crash on Linux when pasting a module with the right mouse button in an

empty area is resolved.

· IMPORT CIFo For the CIF format the allowed DS name can now be 128 characters long.

Previously a 4 character limit according to spec was implemented that couldlead to a failing import.

· LICENSINGo The probability of wrong license error message has been reduced. In case

Layout BEAMER needs a lot of memory so that the application uses a lot ofswap space it happened, that a license check failed with an "Heart beat" error.

1.15.4 v4.4.1

Enhancements

· Export/Import o Floating Field Optimization for Jeol, Vistec or Elionix Export

o The floating field positioning has been optimized for better placement andcentering of the fields. Especially the positioning/centering of fields in Ydirection is more accurate.

o In addition, the logfile now reports the generated fields. o The Vistec GPF and IWFL Export now supports "Symmetric" extent selection.

This expands the extend to become symmetric to the origin.o The Vistec GPF Import field numbering now reflects the exposure order in case

of fixed field tiling. In older versions, field ordering reflected the fielddefinitions in the file, and not exposure sequence

o The set of JEOL 51 tools has been extended by a tool named JBX-5FE(V1).The difference of this tool to the regular JBX-5FE settings is, that the values ofresolution and subfield size are always based on the 12 MHz specification.

· PECo Shape size dependent blur is now available also for dose PEC. This feature

enables to adjust the short range blur dependent on the feature size. This isimportant for shaped-beam exposure tools and for correcting process effects

129Release Version


(resist development, etching,...). This feature previously had been availableonly for Shape PEC.

o The automatic short-mid range PSF separation position is now moved moretowards the mid range. This boosts the performance without sacrificing PECquality as the energies moved to the SR side are calculated precisely in theshort range PEC.

· Viewero The pick information shows now the bounding box of the picked element.o The "snap for pick information" mode can now be swapped by pressing the ctrl

key during double click with the right mouse button

· Module Handlingo Added module specific Undo and Redo function, so that changes in the module

menu can be reverted.o Copied modules can now be pasted to the mouse position using the right mouse

button.

Solved Issues

· PECo The default short range separation value for Gaussian PSFs is now 200nm, and

not calculated from the Gaussian values. The calculation time for PSFs withsmall value Gaussian is impoved.

o Shape PEC failure on designs containing large empty areas.o The user-defined dose table allows only positive values. Dose tables are

checked for negative values, and will return an error messageo Negative dose classes could be generated under some condition using Gaussian

parameters with mid-range Gamma values

· E-BEAMo The "Line Simulation" mode of the E-Beam module was not working for

numerical PSF’s, leading to empty results, or simulations with dose = 0. Thefast "Line Simulation" mode is now available for all PSFs.

o The E-Beam simulation with result setting „contour“ now takes the definedregions into account in all cases.

· EXPORTo The "Interleaving" and "Interleaving + extra field" options for Field Overlap have

been dropping data for hierarchical layouts. This is fixed now.o The GPF Export does now convert the dose value of 0.5 to the maximum

representable Frequency.o For Elionix CON Export the scaling of polygonal shapes with a narrowing could

result into missing parts of the pattern. The effect could occur if the scalingfactor is less than 1.0 and the export resolution is more coarse than the patterndesign units.

o In Crestec Export the Auto scanning mode behaved like Y mode - this issue isresolved.

o The layer number for Crestec CCC has been fixed



· Othero The checking on the correctness of the syntax of variables is improved.

Variables with only one % sign have returned a 0, now such incorrect variabledefinitions result in an error message.

1.15.5 v4.4.0

Please note that we have added a set of 10 new videos to the Training Video section.

Enhancements

· Export o Multi-Pass Capability

o In addition to Jeol and Vistec EBPG, the Vistec VB systems now supportMultipass and enhanced field position control too

o As an alternative to multi-passing all feature, a new field blending technique“interleaving” is introduced to mitigate stitching issues just at main filedborders at reasonably short write times. This technique is especiallyinteresting for waveguide application.

o Two new multi-pass modes “layer selective” and “dose selective” have beenintroduced. This provides a fine grain control for applying different number ofpasses to specific features, e.g. single pass for feature with low doses andincrease number of passes for higher doses, thereby enabling short writetime at high quality for critical features.

o A new field position control mode “Cell to Field” allows the definition of mainfields based on cell definition in the layout. The first hierarchy level below the topcells defines the content of each field. Should the cell content be larger than afield, a set of fields will be exported before the next cell follows. This featuresupports application such as:o Merging of differently fractured machine files into one machine file. In

addition, operations that preserve hierarchy (cells) can be executed inbetween, since this preserved the original field positioning.

o Continue exposure of a partially exposed pattern (that was stopped aftercompleting a field). To do this, load a machine file, remove exposed fields(cells) ad Export the rest with the “Cell to Field” option

o Field Sorting by Layero The manual field definition has been expanded by a new command that

allows specific sorting of the region layer to field association. The '>'operator triggers that layers will be processed in an incremental order to theircorresponding fields.

o The performance of the Export to machine formats after a PEC has beenimproved by doing a more fine grain spatial sorting of the layout in the PECstep.

o JEOL Export enhancemento The JDI file for a JBX 5500 now contains specially formatted data-strings to

make copy/paste to job-deck easiero Crestec Export

o Added the Vector Overlap Method for PEC corrected layouts to enable theexposure of different doses using overlapping features

· PECThe correction accuracy has been enhanced in several directions:o The determination of the “Separation Point” between short and long-range

correction has been improved by an energy integral analysis of the numerical

131Release Version


PSF. This new method is numerically more stable and thereby less sensitive torandom fluctuations in the tablulated PSF file.

o Besides the automatic determination, the “Short Range Separation Value” canbe set in the GUI as well.

o The energy in the mid-range section of the PSF is analyzed for its overallcontribution. If its energy is less than the energy specified in the new userparameter “Mid Range Activation Threshold”, it will be included in the long-rangecorrection (which is less time consuming). Else, it will be corrected separately,leading to a higher correction accuracy at longer computation times

IMPORTANT: This enhancements may result in different (more accurate) correctionresults which might require a base dose adjustment and may lead to longercorrection times

o The limitation of having a maximum dose factor of 65 has been removed.

Values can now go up to 2*106.

· Shape PECo The correction of Process Loading Effects is now available in the Shape PEC

module. Note: Process Loading Effects are corrected by dose modulation (aslong range effects), and therefore not available in the Emulate mode

· E-Beam Simulationo E-Beam simulation using a numerical PSF requires a setup time for the PSF

between 10 and 60 seconds for each simulation region. With BEAMER 4.4.0this setup time is only consumed once for an E-Beam simulation independent ofthe number of regions.

o The E-Beam module now simulates E-Beam shots in the center of a trapezoid incase that width or height is less than the shot pitch.

o The memory consumption of the E-Beam simulation with numerical PSFs hasbeen improved by a better separation between the short, mid- and long rangepart of the numerical PSF.

o The locator option log Slope in the 1D view has been modified to [%Dose/nm].This option is only available for the intensity view and not the concentration view.

· Importo Import of OASIS and OASIS.Mask data o IWFL import now displays the field borders

· Extracto The Extract module now writes its parameters to the log file.

· Mappingo The Mapping module now accepts variables in the layer and the alias fields.

Please note, that it is still not allowed to assign the same layer name to multiplelayers and to use "*" in the layer list.

· Platform / Architectureo Layout BEAMER is now available for 64-bit Windows. o The VIEWER can now be started as a standalone program in Linux. It resides in

the bin folder and can be used to load and view CAD data (gds,dxf, txl, cif).

· Phytono In the Python interface it is possible to ask the Layout BEAMER python object

for the default settings of each method. For example, pec_options() returns adictionary which contains the default settings a PEC operation would use.



Solved Issues

· PECo Long range PEC tried to preserve arrays as well as possible. In case the pitch of

an array is not a multiple of the database grid this causes irregular snapping ofthe sub arrays created during PEC. This is resolved by flattening such arrays.

o High doses at small sharp corners were caused by a small user defined"Minimum Figure Size" value, typically when the short range blur is larger thanthe created fracture. . This is because small sharp corners lose most of theirenergy to the neighborhood. It is recommended to use "Minimum Figure Size" in'Automatic' mode in order to prevent this mismatch between sub shape sizesand effect range.

o Performing an undersize/overdose correction based on a numerical PSF, theoverdose factor was applied twice. This lead to incorrect correction results thatbecame apparent when comparing them against a Gaussian fit of that PSF

o The pre-fracturing for the short range PEC was not executed properly which ledto the generation of very large elements. These elements were then assignedthe dose intended for the short range influenced element which led to a wrongdose assignment.

o The short range PEC returned only long range dose correction in case pre-fractured data was used. If the length of edges were significantly smaller thanalpha, the short range correction for those elements were skipped, treating themonly with a long range correction.

o The PEC module in the cluster mode overestimated the eta of a numerical PSFresulting in different results compared against a non-cluster run.

· EBEAMo In the e-beam image result view, the detach button was enabled even if no

simulation was executed. Pressing this button caused the software to crash.

· EXPORTo In case a JEOL or VEP Export used Beam Step Size Fracturing with the option

"use existing dose range" switched OFF, the dose values have been inaccurateif there was a prior FDA module. Now the original dose values are kept ifpossible and new dose classes are added for the filling elements. Should thetool have a limited number of dose classes it may be that these new doseclasses are less accurate due to the limited number of available dose classes.

o The accuracy of the dose time for the CRESTEC export has been improved to0.01µsec.

o Exporting a proximity effect corrected pattern that contained single lines to v30with compaction enabled could result in an invalid pattern. Storing compactedsingle lines and frequency switches has to be done in a particular order that wasnot adhered to.

o In some cases the GPF computed pixel time was too high. If an array withrepeated elements is large enough to require sub field and main field repetition,it could be split up in a big sub/main field repetitions to cover most of theelements and an additional sub field repetition for the residual elements. In thiscase the residual elements where counted twice.

· Crasheso Running a flow with the sequence Optimizer – E-Beam - Metrology and clicking

with the right mouse button during flow execution on the e-beam module causeda crash.

133Release Version


o A crash is resolved that occurred when closing the Metrology module afterimporting the metrology data as a text file.

· Othero Reloading a flow that contained a variable %a% changed the variable to %25a%

25.o The option to collect loop results for the metrology module has been removed -

this module always collects the results. In the previous releases, the collectionfailed if the option was switched on explicitly.

o The maximum number of threads used in a run is now limited to the minimum ofthe allowed licenses and the maximum number of threads as specified in theFILE/Properties dialog. Previously it was possible to put the computer into adeadlock by entering a large number of threads in the FILE/Properties dialog.

o With large user flow libraries, the scroll bar was overlaying the modules andprevented the selection of custom flows.

o On the Japanese version of Windows 7, the E-Beam dialog tables of the ResultSettings and the Advanced Tabs were not been visible.

o Performing a merge on an uncorrected pattern with a corrected pattern resultedin having the lowest dose of the corrected pattern being assigned to theuncorrected pattern.

o For patterns with inner corners the short range correction lowered the dose inlarger areas because of misinterpreting the orientation of the edges at thosecorners.

o In the dialogs found throughout the software, the parameter input fields have anunlimited length and are saved accordingly. However, opening a flow would onlyload the first 256 characters. This limit has been increased to 1024 characters.

1.16 v4.3

1.16.1 v4.3.6

Enhancements

· GPF Exporto The floating field placement now centers the field better in y direction.

· Elionix CONo Import and export now support the SINGLE SPOT command.

· P-XORo The performance has been significantly increased by processing larger chunks

of data (better memory utilization), and by a changed soft frame default of zero.

· Layout VIEWERo Pick into layouts with large amounts of data has become significantly faster.o The pick of single lines has become more accurate.

Resolved Issues

· BIASo An element loss could occur for very long, almost vertical edges (e.g. 108

database units in Y, and 1 database unit in X). A numeric precision issue couldlead to a loss of that element then.

· JEOL Export



o The center to field option in conjunction with manual fields exceeding the fieldsize resulted in an empty result pattern in case of a pattern extent smaller thanthe field size.

· GPF Importo Importing a GPF file that included a dose value of exactly 0.5 did not work due

to a division by zero.

· PECo Cluster processing with fixed dose accuracy could result in a too large number of

dose classes in the result pattern.

· E-Beamo For a shot simulation using a beam blur of 0nm, the resulting absorbed energy

was always zero.

1.16.2 v4.3.5

Enhancements

· PEC o For single lines, grid snapping effects were impacting the area coverage, leading

to incorrect dose assignments. For that to happen, the pattern resolution had tobe larger than the single line width parameter

o The definition of arcs and curves is now maintained during PEC. This is ofspecial interest for formatters that can export curves directly (e.g. Elionix CBCfiles)

Resolved Issues

· HEALo Single lines (paths with a width of 0) maintained their layer during the heal

operation and were not assigned to the target layer defined

· Biaso A negative bias operation that caused polygon edges to cross their path several

times generated strange artifacts. The image illustrates with green the originallayout and a brownish color the intended BIAS result. The yellow area indicatesthe artifacts that were generated because of the boundaries overtaking oneanother; the red arrows show the biasing direction as size.

135Release Version


· Data Compaction for all Export Driverso In release 4.3.3, data compaction was optimized to be able to better compact

PEC corrected structures. Unfortunately, the reworked heuristic did notrecognize nested 2D arrays the same way as before, leading to significantlylarger output files sometimes. Now the algorithm is back to the old performancefor nested 2D arrays, and should also mitigate the “snow flake” effect somewhat.The new heuristic will i) not generate arrays with less than 3 instances, ii)prioritize arrays having a smaller pitch over arrays having a larger pitch, and iii)find large (even nested) arrays at a dominant pitch.

· JEOL Exporto Field Overlap in conjunction with data compaction and Fixed field placement led

to lost pattern data in the overlap area in the v30 format.

· GPF Exporto The memory requirements for computing floating field positions have been

optimized. This resolves a memory allocation error on Windows based systemswhen exporting pattern data using floating fields.



1.16.3 v4.3.4

Enhancements

· JEOL Export:o The multipass subfield fracturing no longer fully fractures pattern elements that

are larger than the subfield size. Instead they are now fracture such that thefigures are aligned with n* subfield size where possible. Therefore, the majorityof the subfield fracturing is done on the machine itself. Only the multipass offsetsand the figures that are not aligned with the subfield size add to the overall v30file size. The net effect is to smooth out the system subfield stitching gaps usinga reasonable amount of data.

o The JEOL export dialog now automatically updates the multipass default subfieldsize.The default subfield size equals 2000x the minimal resolution. It is nowpossible to enter subfield sizes less than 1um.

· VEP Exporto The VEP floating field option has been extended with the option of two new field

traversal modes; Minimal Path (default mode) and Left to Right. The Left toRight mode orders the fields such that stage traversal goes from left to rightwhile ascending in the Y direction, thus minimizing the stitching error in ameander writing mode.

Resolved Issues

· DXF Importo Some DXF CAD tools allow to design polygons as polylines having a width of

zero In case the "Convert To Polygons" option is switched on, Layout BEAMERtries to convert these polylines to a closed polygon whenever possible (forexample, this is the case when the first and the last vertex are identical). This“auto-close” feature had a bug in case two (or more) of these polygons wereoverlapping.

· Shape PECo Applying a shape PEC in the Undersize/Overdose mode directly after an

extract of layers caused a layer assignment error message. Since Shape PECcannot maintain the layer information anyway, the entire result is now writtento layer "0".

· GPF Exporto Exporting patterns with floating fields could lead to missing layout elements due

to an error during the writing optimization. The subsequent centering of datainside a floating field erroneously set the position wrong and dropped patterndata.

· PEC o Having the legacy mode of the short range PEC enabled, without having any

short range relevant shapes in the layout caused the error message "Databasecan only have one writable cell at a time".

1.16.4 v4.3.3

Enhancements

· JEOL Formattero The JBX-9500 machine has been added to the JEOL formatter list.

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1.16.5 v4.3.2

Resolved issues

· Short Range PECo For cases that required the short range correction to process the layout in tiles,

the dose assignments were too low. Polygons that were split between tiles weretreated incorrectly in the event that they also had a coinciding polygon fracture.

1.16.6 v4.3.1

Enhancements

· Improved Boolean Operations performanceo AND, MINUS, NOT, HEAL, P-XOR are significantly faster for layouts that

contain multiple overlapping features with a large number of vertices.

· Compaction aware fracturing in the PEC module o The fracturing done by the PEC module is now better suited for data

compaction in the generated output.

· GPF diagonal line compaction o an additional constraint was implemented that the base trapezoid used in

diagonal line compaction is at least 20 beam steps sizes wide/high. The neteffect is a much better compaction on long diagonal lines.

Changes

· Merge o needs to generate cell names in case of name conflicts between the merged

layouts. This cell name generation uses a different rule set to avoid extensivelylong cell names.

Resolved issues

· PECo Stalling short range PEC correction – a large minimum figure size led to an

overestimation on the amount of shapes to be included in the correction. As aconsequence, large amounts of memory were allocated, eventually freezing theprocess. Unfortunately, this would also freeze the licensing query, and LayoutBEAMER would terminate because of the no longer visible license.

· Shape PEC asymmetrieso long edges sometimes masked the influence of features beyond this edge.

These influences are now taken into account correctly. Another asymmetrycame from long lines that did see a varying back-scatter influence

· Bias o a positive bias on complex polygons with holes that were joined together as a

result of bias produced incorrect results.



1.16.7 v4.3.0

Enhancements

PEC · Two modes for the minimum figure size are available now:

o The ‘Automatic’ mode sets the minimum figure size parameter optimally basedon the point spread function (PSF) and the beam blur.

o The ‘User defined’ mode allows the user to specify the minimum figure size forthe correction.

o Flows from previous versions are set to the most appropriate mode; in case thiscannot be decided, the user is asked for the setting

· Contrast enhancement through model-based undersize / overdose correction - theshape PEC module now offers this as an additional mode

· Proximity Effect Correction on single lines - the energy contribution of single linesis now taken into account by the long range PEC. For that, the user needs tospecify the width of the single line.

· PEC fracturing does not create long slivers any more. The issue was that a requiredfracture in a large complex polygon created a sliver on the other end of thefracture. Now, fractures are snapping to the next already existing polygon vertexthat is within the range of the minimum figure size.

· The resulting dose table now contains only the computed range. Previously theminimum dose had a lower limit of 1+eta, in other words, the dose table startedthere even if the corrected pattern contained doses > 1+eta only (e.g. a sparselayout consisting of tiny figures only).

Bias· Bias performs significantly faster in cases where large number of elements/vertices

are “biased away” (e.g. through large negative Bias values)

Export General· The fracturing performance of flat layouts with large, complex polygonal shapes

has been improved by a factor of 2.· The manual field definitions for VISTEC, JEOL and Elionix CON can be imported

through a file table.· Multipass writing strategy

o To enhance the writing quality, LayoutBEAMER provides the multipasswriting strategy, enabling to average out statistical and/or systematical errorsthat occur during writing. The main effects are improved line edge roughness(LER), line width roughness (LWR) and field stitching errors. Currentlysupported are Vistec GPF and JEOL, other formats will follow.

Export VISTEC· GPF fracturing was reworked to reduce the trapezoid / rectangle count for all-

angled polygons. In addition, in case of beam-step-size > resolution, the algorithmtries to adhere to the outer contour and moves alignment issues to the center

· VEP Export creates a *.job file to support automated job-deck creation and writetime estimation

Export JEOL · The Subfield Fracturing option only creates elements smaller than 1 subfield, so

that on the machine no further subfield fracturing is required.

139Release Version


Export ELX· The Elionix CON export Dialog has been extended to provide a new option "Adapt

Dose to Shot Pitch" which allows to correct for Shot Pitch dose variation.· Single Lines with length 0 are not written any more.· The required dose values (classes) are now checked against the machine limits, and

a warning is generated if there if a loss in accuracy.· The F125 CON import driver does now support the fan statement. It will be

converted into a fan-shaped polygon when imported.

Viewer – Transparency, Overlay by color and custom dose colors· The new default “transparency”, greatly improving the visualization of the layout.

Overlays are visible now with the respective colors of the layout elements.· With the ‘Color by Overlay’ mode a color code is applied that depends on the

number of overlaps. · Additionally one can now adjust the colors for the display of minimum and

maximum dose colors.· Picking Single Lines now show the vertex positions similar to other elements

Extract - new region extraction modes· In addition to the existing ‘clip’ behavior (geometries are cut at the region

boundary), two new modes are available that react differently to geometriesoverlapping the region boundary. The ‘within’ mode keeps only those geometriesthat are completely inside the region boundary. The ‘touching’ keeps all geometriesthat are either within the box or touch the region boundary.

EBeam – single line simulation· Simulation of single lines is possible by activating the “include shot simulation“

option

Solved issues

General· HEAL ran into a memory limit in case of a very inhomogeneous pattern in

conjunction with the number of vertices in the result layout being much larger thanthe number of vertices in the input layout.

· Loops that used negative integer values did not work on 64 Bit platforms.· The sequence of variable values in a loop module is no longer changed when

reopening the dialog.· In rare cases, a positive bias on an arbitrary polygon in conjunction with a bias

value being larger than the geometry size resulted in a wrong element.· Flow Handling: warnings that are created to alert the user of a functional change

(current version to version that created that flow) are now written to the logfile.· On large designs, multithreaded PEC sometimes created an incorrect dose table.

Multithreading computes the correction for different parts of the layoutconcurrently, and updates the dose table accordingly. In case of a concurrentupdate of that table, one update might interfere with the other. As the doses ofdifferent layout parts may be similar, or completely different, and may be reportedin arbitrary order, the bug showed up randomly. This update of the dose table isnow properly synchronized.

DXF Import



· During the DXF Import theLWPolylines with the flag closed have been importedas Polylines, in all cases. In case of this bug a LWPolyline had an additional widthflag, this is now imported as single line with a certain width.

CIF Import· Referencing a cell ("C" command) directly (as opposed to referencing a cell within

another cell), the shift of this reference was not taken into account, resulting in awrong position of that cell instance.

·Bitmap Import

· The bitmap would not be imported if the file path contained non ASCII characters(e.g. Japanese).

JEOL Export· J01 – The export did not work if the file paths contained non ASCII characters

(e.g. Japanese).

LayoutEditor· The macro functionality has been restored.

Fracture· For large patterns (e.g. > 200MB on a 32bit Windows platform, or > 1.6GB on a

64bit LINUX platform that uses 16GB of RAM) the Fracture module encountereda crash.

LayoutViewer· Ubuntu stability issues are resolved. The issues were related to drawing layouts in

Layout Viewer, and were solved by replacing the drawing library by a library thatdoes support multithreaded operation.

E-Beam· E-Beam simulation crashed if a numerical PSF was used in combination with the

‘include shot simulation’ option.· Using the contour mode and adding an etch bias which removes complete contours

from the result layout LayoutBEAMER created the error message "PolysetNumber out of range".

· When using a numerical PSF on layouts with a large number of arbitrary polygonshaving their vertices nearly horizontal or vertical caused inaccurate simulationresults.

· Using the E-Beam line simulation mode in conjunction with resist effects couldcause inaccurate contour results (maximum inaccuracy was 4 times the E-Beamresolution).

· When using the E-Beam module with image results in conjunction with switchingoff the “Hold intermediate results” check box in the File -> Properties dialog, itwas not possible to add additional simulation regions inside of the E-Beam resultview.

141Release Version


1.17 v4.2

1.17.1 v4.2.6

Enhancements· Distributed Processingo Performance enhancements by improved load balancing for the Layout BEAMER

cluster version

Solved issues· PECo Correction for "Process Loading Effects" with an influence range much smaller than the

layout ( < 1/1000) resulted in an error message. The data handling conflict for suchcases is solved.

· BIASo Performing a hierarchical operation on a layout that contained overlapping rotated array

references did not result in the desired output - parts of the array were missing.

· Import DXF Formato The optional extent definition EXTMIN and EXTMAX in the DXF header sometimes

caused an overflow for very large extents. This is avoided now by ignoring the values incase they are out of range. Instead, the extent will be set to the bounding box createdby all the pattern geometries (minimal extent).

· Export Jeol J51 formato Pattern Units in J51 can be on a finer grid than the extent (which is specified in 10nm

units). Independently snapping to the two grids could result into an extent that wasslightly smaller than the actual pattern. Now, the extent is rounded up to make sure allcoordinates are inside.

· GPF Export configuration fileo On Windows, if the configuration file that stores the user defined tool settings has

been set to "hidden" file, saving user define machine settings resulted in a crash.Layout BEAMER now assumes "hidden" as "write protected" and provides an errormessage. If you run into this error message, the "hidden" attribute needs to beremoved to enable saving user defined configurations.

o On Windows XP, changing the writing grid resolution for an user defined tool settingresulted in a crash

· Export VEP jobfile datao Fixed an incorrectly reported dose value for layouts that were not proximity effect

corrected.

· Import Elionix format o Importing CON files that used the internal class method instead of the floating class

method for dose assignments ran into dose range errors due to an incorrect scaling.

· NanoBeam Formato The extension of the NanoBeam Export format has been changed to *.gds and the

dose information to *.ndf.

· Raith Formato The extension of the Raith Export format has been changed to *.gds.



1.17.2 v4.2.5

Enhancements· Support for NanoBeam machines (license required)o The new NanoBeam Export generates the *.npf with pattern data and *.njt including

dose modulation for PEC

Solved issues· Elionix Formato CON file Export of circles to ELS-F125 was incorrect, the files could not be loaded

from the machine.o CEL file Import of circles (DC command) was not symmetrical to its's center if the circle

was small in relation to the database grid, circumferences (DM command) had not beenclosed and not symmetric with regards to the center.

o Elionix CEL files could not be imported if the first line was not a comment line with thefile name in it. Files with ending CEL will always be imported as Elionix CEL files.

o In the Import CON dialog the field size input has to be set to "Read from File" if thesettings should be loaded from the CON file. In the previous version this was named"undefined".

o The CON Import structure (field) naming has been extended to reflect the field traversalsequence number. Please be aware, that this interferes with existing "Extract bystructure name" of Elionix CON imported files

o The memory error for layouts with large amount of fractured trapezoids is solved byoptimizing the memory management

o For cases where the CBC memory limit of 2GB is exceeded, Layout BEAMER willautomatically split the data to multiple CBC files

o A check box has been added to switch off the saving of CCC files for large CON datafiles.

· VEP Exporto The dose range information in the job file, log file and the binary VEP file have been

not exactly the same. Now all files have the same value, which is the values of theinternal Layout BEAMER dose classification.

o The field size in the job file was always rounded to 6 overall digits. This resulted ininaccurate values if the field size was large. The field size in the job file is nowreported with up 9 decimal places.

· Jeol J01 formato The error message for Polygons (J01 tag TK) during import is solved.o Nested RL (array repetition) commands are now handled correctly.o The View in J01 Export module is now using the correct resolution

· PECo The text control field for short range correction layer list on the Advanced tab of the

PEC dialog was enabled when switching to Legacy mode and switching off theAutomatic region detection. It has not been disabled when switching back to HighPerformance mode, even though field is only effective in Legacy mode with short rangecorrection.

· E-Beamo Enhanced E-Beam simulation accuracy by resolution increase. Affects mainly designs

with many non rectangular figures including angles < 1 degree.o The simulation with a numerical PSF and database units of simulated layout not equal

1nm has been fixed

143Release Version


o In case of vertical cutlines the simulated image data have not been displayed if thesimulation region x and y coordinates were not the same.

o The legend colors in the discrete and discrete filled mode in the image result view arecorrected.

· Metrology Viewo The wrong coloring in the "all cutline" mode with one cutline without any data is fixed

· Layout Viewero The center coordinates of measurement lines displayed at the Measurement

Information tab have been fixed

· VisualFlow GUIo Loading a flow which has been saved with undefined Export module parameter caused

an unhandled exception when clicking the Export module. This issue is solved by notallowing to save flows with undefined modules. The message "The flow containsundefined modules, please delete or define these modules before saving." gives thenecessary hints for how to continue.

o Using the "Start up Directory Mode" (File - Properties dialog) changed the Help ManualDirectory path to the start up directory, so that the on-line help function in the GUI wasnot working anymore.

1.17.3 v4.2.4

Enhancements· Support for Elionix ELS-F125, Elionix ELS-2 Format· Elionix CON enhancementso The Elionix CON export driver now provides a means to limit the type of generated

rectangular shape orientations. There are two modes:§ The XY mode is the default mode and corresponds to the Elionix SV mode. In that

mode the rectangle shape type is chosen according to the longer side of the shape. IfX>Y, then a X rectangle is chosen, if Y>X, then a Y rectangle is chosen.

§ The X only mode limits the set of possible rectangles to X-oriented rectangles only.This is optional and called SV mode.

§ Please note: trapezoids are always oriented in X direction only, therefore the XYmode does not apply to trapezoids.

o The Field Size and Pixel Density Fields are now available in the Elionix CON importdialog. The values selected herein are used only in case there is noFieldSize/PixelDensity parameter specified in the *.CON file

· Elionix CELo The CEL import now recognizes the SP statement. The values of Line Pitch and Scan

Pitch are read, but not used for visualization purposeso The CEL file import now considers the Layer number information. In case no layer

number information is present, features are put into layer "1"· Vistec VEPo Manual Field Placement - the export VEP dialog has an additional import button that

enables to import a text file with the coordinates of the desired fields. (blank or tabseparated)

Solved issues· Elionixo CEL export: the CEL export for hierarchical layouts was not correct if there was a

reflect or a 90, 180 or 270 degree rotation present in the layouto CON export: § The user extent was not taken into account



§ Single lines were exported as a correct single line plus an additional point at the endof the line. This additional point is not exported any more

· GPF Exporto In case of using the "diagonal line compaction" option, layouts consisting of gratings at

an orientation from lower left to upper right that had a pitch that is representable in asubfield repetition and a line length larger than the subfield size resulted in an invalidGPF file (the fractured elements were larger than the subfield allowed)

· Extracto A cell instances extract combined with a user defined extent deleted the extent values if

the dialog was opened and closed again· E-Beam simulationo In the python interface, the Gaussian shot option was limited to Manhattan shots. Now

JEOL and GPF shots placement can be used tooo E-Beam simulations with image result showed a slight wrong position if the number of

pixels was small· PECo A too stringent consistency check led to the error message “Cell Find error at …”. o Overlaps had been created if an array exceeds the number of one Billion elements. A a

division into sub-arrays was performed, but the subsequent recombination was notcorrect

o The progress bar for long range PEC did not work

· PEC/E-Beamo Loading PSFs with too large radial steps (>100nm) caused a crash on Windows

platforms

1.17.4 v4.2.3

Enhancements

· VEP Export o The "Extended logile output" has been modified on some fields to enhance the output

data.

1.17.5 v4.2.2

Enhancements

· E-Beam simulation image viewso default settings can be savedo The matrix view has been enhanced to have selectable columns and rows for direct

comparison of the results. The user can select of any combination of column and rowindices.

oA new draw parameter 'draw pixel size' has been added to allow the user to tradeofffast viewing versus more accurate viewing. Large values are good for quick browsingwhile small values generate highly accurate plots. The interpolate option smoothes theresults for zoomed-in images.

· VEP Export o The option "Extended logile output" on the advanced page has been modified to

"Extended logfile output and job file". An additional file is created using the vepfilename and the extension "job". This file contains the information needed for jobtime calculation.

145Release Version


Defects solved

· PECo Short range PEC would crash v4.2.0 if very small geometries (e.g. circles having a

perimeter < alpha-range) were part of the layouto Short range PEC would produce incorrect dose assignments, if the CD was

significantly smaller than the blur in conjunction with the minimum figure size beingsignificantly larger than the alpha range and in parallel the pattern data being smallerthan the minimum figure size

o Shape PEC had a tendency to overcorrect (apply to strong biasing) in designs withsignificant pattern density changes as a result of PEC. This typically happens ifundersize/overdose is applied (target threshold < 0.5), since this results in strongpattern biasing (the desired undersize).

· GPF Export

o The conversion from single lines to trapezoids created incorrect trapezoids (instead of y-traps,x-traps were created)

· J01 Import & Export o Single lines consisting of 2 points were imported using a too large bounding box,

resulting in a too large pattern extento For nested arrays of geometries, the inner array was assigned to the incorrect outer

array, leading to extra shapes that were not intended in the design

· DXF Export o The exported DXF files could not be loaded back into the CAD software because of a

layer table containing layer names with "(" or ")". Since this layer table is optional inDXF, it is no longer written to the DXF files.

oDXF has a limitation on the allowed characters in block names and the length of theblock names. These limitations are now taken into account, cells are renamed duringexport.

· LoggingoUsing the option "Copy Log- and Flow File to Export File" (File-->Properties) in

conjunction with having the export module inside a user module now exports thecurrently active flow and all user flows down to the export module to the exportdirectory. The filename of the user modules is the label of the user module.

· Flow File Load & Save

o Save now returns an error message if saving the flow was not successful

o Loading flows from older versions that contain an Extract module with cell extractionand the extent set to default will automatically switch the mode to cell instance extract



1.17.6 v4.2.1

Defects solved

· PECo Short range PEC results showed dose assignment irregularities in 4.2.0. in case of using

a coarse design grid that is approximately of alpha range scale.

1.17.7 v4.2.0

Enhancements

Fracturing and Output driver:

· NEW: Machine independent Fracture moduleo The new Fracture module can be used at any position of the flow allowing to "pre-fracture" the

layout or parts of the layout using flexible fracture parameter§ Resolution, beam-step-size (shot pitch), optional beam-step size (shot pitch) fracturing§ Different fracture modes (Standard, LRFT, Curved)§ Trapezoid types (X and Y, only X, only Y)§ Controlled fracturing angles (trapezoid with any angle, trapezoid with 0 and 45 deg, only

rectangleoApplication

§ Pre-fracturing layout before PEC§ Fracture different parts of layout using different parameter, Merge and Export§ Trapezoid types (X and Y, only X, only Y)§ Controlled fracturing angles (trapezoid with any angle, trapezoid with 0 and 45 deg, only

rectangle

· Enhanced Manual field placemento The Manual field placement option has been extended to give a better control of writing order

of fields§ Selected Then Remainder: First exposed the selected ("manually" defined) fields then it

exposes the rest of the layout using meander field positioning§ Remainder With Selected: Starts exposing the layout a lower left or upper left (depending on

machine) and inserts the selected fields during meander achieving for minimum stage move § Selected Fields Only: Only the selected fields are exposed

o The Manual field traversal ordering in "Selected Then Remainder" mode has been modified:

§ Fields defined in the region TABLE are exposed first in order of the position in the table§ The region LAYER definitions are processed in their specified order, the order of layers can

be specified by separating commas, e.g. ( 33, 31 ), specifying 31-33 means that all layers inthe range from 31 to 33 are treated with the same priority.

§ All fields resulting from a given layer definition are now analysed for their minimal path.This is done individually for each layer definition.

o In case of multiple overlapping manual regions the features are assigned to the field with thesmallest lower left distance

o In case of Compaction is switched on, the manual field implementation preserves arrays priorassigning them to the field center, to avoid this behavior compaction needs to be disabled.

o If no manual fields are found during execution in the case of "Selected Then Remainder" and"Remainder With Selected" the layout is processed just by exposing the layout without anymanual fields, an warning is written to the logfile. In the case of Selected Fields Only an erroris created (as in previous versions).

o Pattern within "manual" fields are centered

147Release Version


§ For Jeol and Vistec VEP manual fields which are inside the pattern extend and at lower andright border. Pattern at left and upper limits which would require negative coordinates for thefield are not centered.

§ For Vistec GPF the manual field are now centered around the data in all cases, the bottomand left borders of the fields can have negative coordinates

· Enhanced Fracturing Mode “Curved” for optimal fracturing of circles and ringso The Curved fracturing mode has been enhanced to take beam step size (shot pitch)

into account when fracturing circle or rings.

· Heidelberg DWL 2000 Expost (optional)o Layout BEAMER does now support the HIMT DWL 2000. For details contact

[email protected]

· PNG ExportoA new png export is available, which creates a grey scale png file, the user can define pixel

size, number of dose classes, for details please refer to the manual.

PEC:

· NEW: Corner PEC module o Allows “corner sharpening” by rule based dose adjustments at feature edges and corners:§ Layout is decomposed to segments: Bulk, edge, outer corner, inner corner § Size of inner and outer corner elements depend on corner angle§ Standard dose PEC is applied first§ Relative dose factor assignment to each segment: Increase dose at outer corners, lower dose

at inner corners , lower dose at edgeso Application§ Increasing corner sharpness of inner and outer corner§ Improve image contrast by applying dose factor to bulk and edge

· Improved accuracy, uniformity and performance of short range PECo The positioning of evaluation points is improved to give less fractures of arbitrary shapes,

better dose uniformity and accuracy

· The minimum dose value for short range PECo For avoiding exeeding the frequency limit of the machine, a minimum dose value can be

defined when using short range PEC

· Improved PEC performance of long range PEC § For cases with arrays with a pitch larger than the beta divided by 10 has been improved

significantly.

E-Beam Simulation:

· NEW: Image simulation of multiple regionso Simulation of multiple regiono Easy simulation of additional regionso Image view of multiple region selectable by drop-down

· NEW: Extended viewing and evaluation of simulation data o 2D only, 1D only, 1D + 2D viewso 1D image at user defined cut-lineo Matrix-view for loopso Measure image intensity, slope, log slope at 1D view



o Export data for external evaluation (e.g. Excel, MatLab)

· Minor changeso The legacy mode for the ebeam simulation has been removed. o The checkbox "simulated regions only" has been changed to a checkbox "whole layout". o The smallest Feature control has been changed to a pixel size control.

Layout Operation:

· Extract of "cell instances"o It is now possible to extract "cell definition" (former cell extract mode) and cell

instances.

· Performance enhancement of layout operationo The layout operations P-XOR, AND, BIAS and NOT, especially for non orthogonal pattern

have been improved significantly, depending on the pattern a performance gain up to 90% isachieved.

o The import of gds, txl, dxf and cif files is significant faster (more than 50%)

Other Enhancements:

· Integrated Helpo A "Help" button in every module dialog opens the proper section where the module is

described in a separate browser windowo The "Help Manual..." in the Program Menu opens the Layout BEAMER manual as html in

browser

· Viewing warnings and error messageso The tab "Errors/Warnings" has been added to the main window, so that errors and warnings can

easily be found. The tab is near to the log info tab, if an error or warning is created this tab isput into the foreground, this tab cannot be hided in the view menu.

· Loop extensionso values for variable can be defined by a table, enabling to define not arbitrary (not ordered)

valueso it is possible to loop over alphanumeric strings, e.g. file nameso values can be imported from a text fileo multiple variable which are coupled may be defined (see manual for details)

· Layout Viewer enhancementso A new mode- color by cell - has been added. In the cell tree the cell icons changes to show the

cell color. One of the main uses is showing fractured fields in different colors, because fieldsin fractured data are organized in fields

o Measurements snap to center of bounding box. Ruler end point is marked with a cross (x).This function is important to measure layout position relative to the alignment mark centerposition

· Sorting of layer in Extract dialogo The layer list in the extract dialog is now sorted like in layout viewer

· GUI enhancements / changeso Label and comment is now part of each dialog.o Split modules are now always computed

149Release Version


o Inserting a module in between a complex flow does not move subsequent modules too much tothe bottom

o User defined modules do update now the "run to/ view" icon after the execution is finalizedo The properties dialog has an additional option to define wether the flow files should be saved

with relative (default) or absolute patheso The look and feel of the dialogs on Linux with larger font sizes has been improved.

· Export JEOL v30/j51o Exporting non PEC corrected layouts to JEOL format do remove now jdi files with the same

name from the export directory.

· JEOL 01o Export does use the standard 0.1um unit scale, The unit is a user parameter.

· All machine data exporto All export to binary machine data checks the extent of the pattern, all pattern larger than 12

inch create an error message.

· Installer for Windows 32/64 bito A new check is implemented in the windows installer routine to check for the system

architecture. Depending on the outcome either the 64bit or 32bit version of CodeMeter isinstalled.

Defects solved

· Export JEOL v30/j51o In the case of a field size x or y smaller than 100 times the pattern units, and using the floating

field export the application could crash Layout BEAMER. Now this case is processedproperly.

o Export directly after a Merge module resulted in wrong JDI files not properly considering alldose classes of the merged layouts. WIth the fix now the JDI file is considering all doseclasses of the exported layout.

o Multithreaded Export resulted in a invalid v30/j51 files in rare cases. This cases are fixednow.

o Export to j51 with single lines and the reserved single line dose classes value set to 0 theexport crashed in case of multithreaded export. This bug is resolved avoiding the crash andprompting an error message.

· Export JEOL 01 o Negative numbers could be saved to j01 files. According to the specification of JEOL01 now

only positive numbers are written to j01 files.

· Export VEPo The export could result in an error in the case of compaction off and a large number of

primitives in one field. This has been fixed.

· Export GPF/IWFLo With Beam Step Size fracturing gaps have been created, this is resolved by ignoring specific

points of the input layout to avoid such gaps.o Export IWFL settings:§ The Trapezium Orientation could be set to x and y trapezoids, but the IWFL sytems are only

able to expose x-trapezoids. The choice for trapezoid orientation has been disabled.



§ The maximum BSS for EBPG 5000 systems has been calculated without considering theproper maximum subfield MSF. This resulted into a wrong maximum BSS and mainfieldsize. The default and maximum parameter for EBPG 5000 systems have been updated.

· Export Elionixo In the Export dialog with opened layout showing the fields and the field size x or y is modified,

the filed view got corrupted. Now the view updates the field sizes properly.o In the Manual Field mode, the box in the field definition layer was erroneously exported to the

pattern data. Now the box defining the field in the definition layer is ignored.o Export CEL generated invalid cel file for arrayed references with rotated elements. This issue

is fixed.o The Elionix CON File Import does support now blanks between the comment identifiers "/*"

and "*/" and the comment body.

· Export Cresteco Using Crestec Export with the Manual Field mode, the box in the field definition layer was

erroneously exported to the pattern data. Now the box defining the field in the definition layeris ignored.

· All machine data exporto There was a bug in importing flow files with manual region Layer multiple layer names

including blanks in the list. The layer names including blanks are saved now properly into theflow file.

o After importing fractured data the field are displayed correctly at the Import module, whenadding and executing a module to the Import module, the fields of the layout of the Importmodule have not been viewed properly anymore. This is fixed now.

· PECo In the dose class definition in "Accuracy" mode the number of dose classes has not been

always determined correct. This is fixed so that the specified accuracy is assured.o For highly symmetric, large figures, e.g. circles might not have been fractured at all in very

rare cases. Now it is assured that also this figure class is always fractured correctly.o Arrays of figures were not sub-fractured during PEC in case of using "Dose Class Definition"

- "User Defined". Hence only one dose was assigned to all figures in the array. This case isfixed now.

o In all 4.1.x versions the periodic repetition functionality (advanced tab) was for assumingperiodic repetition the pitch in y direction was ignored and the pitch x was taken for pitch y.And the create array functionality was not working. The functionality of PEC with periodicrepetition is reworked and is functional again.

o FDA with "multiply" is improved for cases where the dose classes need a different accuracycompared to the incoming accuracy.

o If applying an FDA with "multiply" on a PEC corrected Layout with only one resulting doseclass, the number of dose classes of this FDA step is the number of entries in the assignmenttable, this results in a to rough dose classification for the result. Now the allowed number ofdose classes is taken to get a maximum of accuracy.

o PSFs (Point-Spread-Function) loaded from files, where the first value was not for the radius 0(e.g. Chariot files) have been handled inaccurate (by forcing the first entry to radius 0)resulting a inaccurate fit and correction. This is corrected now to calculating the energybetween for the given radius properly. Correction using those PSFs may result to differentcorrection and different base dose.

· Layout Operationo For layout operation with soft-frame resulting to polygons with several polygons touching each

other so that the number of vertices of these polygons is larger than 512, Layout BEAMERcreated sometimes result polygons which do not fulfill the soft-frame condition. This issue isfixed now.

151Release Version


o The issue that single lines have been removed during layout operations and PEC is resolved.o Using complex formulas for the target layer in the HEAL module could cause the application

to crash. This has been fixed.o In the case of an minus operation on inhomogeneous pattern with a partly high density of

elements it could happen that the operation does not finalize, an error message "Layer Indexnot defined" was created. This issue is resolved.

· Other GUI and format issueso Import Ltxt (textlib, ctxt) circular pathes with 360 degree between the start and the end angle

caused a gap at the outer border of the start/end point. this issue is resolved.o Import of dxf files have been fixed for the case of polylines having a width and a close flag. o Loading a flow which references to a not existing user flow reports now an error message

instead of causing a crash. o Adding a merge module to an user-flow at 2 ports resulted in merging 2 times the layout at the

first port. This is resolved now.o The combination of draw mode marked and color by dose in the Layout Viewer is working

nowo The drawing of measurement line in Layout VIEWER has been corrected at large zoom in.o In some cases of a grid invariant transformation (which might result in disappearing

geometries) and merging this layout with another layout and applying a long range PEC on thislayout caused a crash. This issue is fixed.

Known limitations

· Should memory issue be observered with the 32bit versions of Layout BEAMER there is apossible work around by reducing the number of used threads to reduce memory consumption.

· The Windows installer sets an environment variable to point to the correct configuration files forHeidelberg and Vistec format descriptions. It was observed that these variables are not rightaway visible to Layout BEAMER when next starting. Logging out and logging in again correctedthis issue.

· Stability has been improved, although some GUI stability issues in Ubuntu 9 and 10 are stillopen.

· The delete of user a library is disabled for a Linux installation

1.18 v4.1

1.18.1 v4.1.8

Enhancements and Fixes

· Export MEBES lost elements during conversion if the elements that need to be exportedwere larger then 4096 times the address unit or the x position was larger then 4096 timesthe address unit.

· The error message "Layer Index not defined" was given during a Minus operation incase a previous Extract operation took place and certain conditions were met.

· During a short range PEC a crash occurred on special layout conditions (inhomogeneousvertices distribution and larger database grid being used).



1.18.2 v4.1.7


· Export GPF with the manual field option in "Full Layout" mode has been changed sothat all features inside the manual field will be exposed in this field. Before, the decisionin which field an element is exposed was taken by the distance to the center. Therefore,if the feature distance to the center of a regular field was smaller than the distance to themanual field, the feature was mapped to the regular field. This issue was GPF specificand did not show up with any of the other output formats.

· The crash with advanced PEC option "Process Loading Effect" has been fixed. Atpatches later than 4.1.2 this function has not been working.

· The PSF import is enhanced so that a file does not have to start with the smallest radiusvalue of 0, as long as it is smaller than 1nm. Before, for Chariot PSF files with a smallestradius larger than 0, the import returned an error message.

· The "Scale Dose Range" function of the Export module following the Merge of multiplelayouts is fixed to use the proper PEC parameter (Eta), independent on the order of themerged layouts.

· The hierarchy handling for layout operation is improved for scenarios with multiple

interleaving arrays. A reported long computation times for Heal on a complex hierarchy

with interleaving arrays has been cut down to a few seconds.

· Fixed an inconsistency in the calculation of PEC dose classes for a given relative dose

accuracy. In general more dose classes than required were used yielding an accuracy

better than the one specified in the PEC dialog.

1.18.3 v4.1.6


· GPF Export – auto-scaling of doses: Since the GPF export allows only relative

dose values above 0.5, the EXPORT will abort with an error message if a dose

value smaller than 0.5 exists. The user needs to explicitly scale the dose values

then using FDA. This change was necessary, since the auto-scaling in earlier

versions was not visible to the user.

· GPF Export – asymmetric subfields: the subfields size setting for Y was ignored

and the X value was used, leading square subfields. Now, subfields can be

asymmetric.

· IMPORT – polygon validation performance in 4.1.3 through 4.1.5: importing

layouts with a large number of complex polygons (50 vertices or more) took a long

time due to an interference of multithreading with the new licensing scheme.

153Release Version


· PEC – short-range PEC dose errors: slightly tilted, slightly overlapping edges (For

example intentionally through a bulk-sleeve flow) led to very low dose assignment,

since the PEC did not recognize the overlap.

· JEOL Export – memory limit: Layout BEAMER has the capability to limit the

amount of data in one field to the memory available in the system. If that memory

limit is hit, LayoutBEAMER will divide one field into multiple fields that sit on top

of each other. Unfortunately, the computation of the actual memory size is not

correct in all cases, leading to an overflow error message on the tool. As an

intermediate solution (workaround), the memory field in the JEOL dialog now

allows the specification of any value (even below 256 Mb, down to 1 Mb).

· Using an FDA module with multiply dose value caused a crash if in the input layout

all elements have the same dose value.

· Using an FDA module with multiply dose value and using an assignment value of

0.0 caused the application to crash. All dose values below 0.01 will be set to 0 now.

· The Cluster version is now working with the new licensing scheme.

1.18.4 v4.1.5


· Improve performance of new license handling and fix performance issues

- The checking of licenses has been optimized for avoiding performance

limitations (less frequent checking of license).

§ The Import of highly hierarchical GDS has been slower because of license

checking for parallel processing with multiple threads.

§ The large number of license checks in case of network licensing has been

slowing down the performance. This has been limiting the performance

especially in case of checking licenses over VPN.

· Dose range for FDA with "Multiply Value" option

- The dose values after FDA with "Multiply Values" have been correct, but the

dose range has been considering minimum dose values from before multiplying.

The dose range of Export data has not been adjusted properly to the minimum

and maximum dose after FDA.

· Shot display of "Simple Manhattan"- The possibility of viewing shot placement for any layout type using a "Simple

Manhattan" placement has been enabled. The display was not working for

layouts other than ldb after v4.1.2.

· Hierarchical Bias



- The hierarchical processing has been improved to avoid memory issues for

cases where the hierarchy had to be flattened during operation.

· Multithreaded hierarchical Short Range PEC - The multithreading has for hierarchical short range PEC operation been

improved. The available threads have not been used properly for cases where

the hierarchy had to be flattened during operation.

1.18.5 v4.1.4


· More flexible license control and fix of licensing issues with v4.1.3

- The new licensing allows higher flexibility and the possibility to check out- and

back licenses for each module. This is especially of advantage for installations

with multiple user, where some features (e.g. PEC) are limited to lower number

of user. The user can activate "Hand module license back after execution" at

the File-Properties menu which returns the license back after executing a

module so that it can be used by another user. Un-checking this option (default)

allows to keep the license for automated scripts or loops.

- Modification of licensing at v4.1.3. created issues at some flows and module

combination for existing licenses (license error).

1.18.6 v4.1.3

New Functions and Enhancements

· PEC enhancements

- The performance of the multithreading PEC has been improved for cases,

where the fracturing needs a significant amount of calculation time.

- Short Range PEC is enhanced to use hierarchy, the center of an array is kept.

This option is very effective for lines and spaces or contact holes where the

pitch is larger than the SR influence range. The option is switchable on the

advanced page, default is ON. This option keeps the center areas of arrays as

much as possible, and flattens the border regions. There may be condition,

where the hierarchical SR PEC may not be effective or cause issues. This

option should be switched off for those cases.

· Format enhancements

- The GDS Export module has a new option to specify the maximum number of

polygon point.

- The GDS Export commands for python have been expanded to also support the

export with 'DoseMapping' to layer

155Release Version


- CIF import allows cell names with ä, Ä, ö, Ö, ü and Ü.

· Viewer Enhancement for saving default shot and field position settings

- The Viewer 'E-Beam' menu entry allows to store and reset default settings for

the Shot and Field display parameters. Those are used in case the layout does

not contain settings. If the settings are defined in the layout file (e.g. GPF) the

settings from the file are used and the default settings are ignored.

· Support for Crestec e-beam systems

- Layout BEAMER now generates CEL and CON files for Crestec CON files,

including dose information for PEC corrected files

Fixes

· Jeol v30/j51 “Layer/Datatype to Class” dose mapping issue

- The maximum shot rank of the v30/j51 file is set according to the input layout

( highest layer / datatype number). For JEOL 6300FS model series the

maximum shot rank was set to zero. This caused that the doses have not been

assigned at the machine.

· Elionix CON Export with special character in fine name or path

- Special characters like 'blanks' or Asian type characters can be used in file

names and paths

· GPF error 'invalid element encountered Error in file "./gpfoutputstructure.cpp'

- Single lines in a pattern which is exported to GPF are now converted in

trapezoids, the error message does not occur in such cases.

· Single Lines and floating fields (for all formatters)

- The error occurred when floating field was selected for layouts with single

lines. The single lines were not detected by the floating field feature

recognition.

- Single line support for floating fields has been improved

· IWFL Export fixes

- The maximum beam-step-size did not consider the maximum subfield msf

resulting to illegal beam-step-size

- Exporting pattern data with an extent less than the resolution is now prevented

and following error message shows up:

§ "The chosen exposure settings results into an empty pattern.".



· PEC issues

- Coordinate overflow error happened in PEC for large designs with absolute

coordinates larger than 2^30 units; corresponding to 1.073 m at nm or 10.73 cm

at Angstroem resolution.

- The PEC module returned with error message for an empty input layout. This

has been a limitation for automation (e.g. looping over layers, where some

could be empty). Now the PEC with empty input layout just returns an empty

layout.

- The “User Defined” Dose Class Definition (Accuracy tab) by importing a table

has been fixed. Version 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 returned without dose modulation (dose

for all elements 1.0) for this mode.

· 3D “Surface” PEC fixes

- The unit of "Remaining Resist" in the contrast curve dialog is set to [um]

(micron) to keep consistency with "Original Thickness" unit in the 3D-PEC

dialog.

- The correction may require doses close to zero (e.g. if only a little resist should

be removed). This caused an error at the calculation of dose classes. The fix

limits the lowest possible relative dose to 0.001.

- Relative resist height ( 0 - 1.0 ) was compared to the absolute original height

value in micron. Worked if the original height was >= 1.0.

· Minus module issues

- The “Layer Index Error” occurred under following condition

§ Large layout where internal tiling was done

AND

§ Left minus input layout has no elements on internal layer index 0. (Result

of extract operation where no elements on internal layer index 0 remained.)

- Under some condition the layer information could get mixed up, this could

result in a change of the dose value generated by PEC or FDA before.

· Mapping module Extent fix

- The extent was reduced to minimum when the input layout extent of the

Mapping module was not equal to top cell's bounding box...

· Define “Layer Set” parameter for GDS Import as variable

157Release Version


- The “Layer Set” parameter of the GDS Export module can be defined as

variable (for loops, or parameterized user flows). This was limited because the

variable definition was not saved when closing the dialog.

· DXF database grid error message

- Importing a dxf file with a too fine internal resolution creates the error

message:

"The database grid specified in the DXF file would result in a numeric

overflow. Please change the database grid to \"Fixed\", and set a reasonable

database grid value".

This error message was not displayed properly, an empty message box was

displayed.

· Changing Label of a user flow

- It is now possible to edit the label of a user-module and save the flow.



1.18.7 v4.1.2

Enhancements

· The measured contrast curve can be loaded from file (open ASCII format) to the 3D PECmodule. The user can define to use the full range of contrast curve or a selected part (e.g,linear part). In addition the base dose for normalization can be defined. This gives fullflexibility for defining the target resist thicknesses and Layout BEAMER extracts thetarget absorbed energies for the correction automatically from the loaded contrast curve.

· A new module called "Mapping" has been introduce for layer renaming. The user interfaceis similar to the FDA module with a table containing the existing layer names andcorresponding new layer names. One use case it to "map" layers with names to numberswhich can be used in automated loops.

· The Optimizer module now writes the current best fit into the logfile after each"generation".

· If the FDA module assigns dose values to all layers, any of the existing doseclassification are replaced by the assigned dose classification. In cases when not alllayers are assigned a new dose, the dose classifications are merged. There is no longer adose class for dose 1.0 added.

· FDA module has been enhanced for handling layer range definition as "*" or "3(*)"· The EXPORT module for JEOL 6300FS EOS Mode 3 now allows a maximum field size

of up to one millimeter

Changes

· The default fracture mode of GPF module is set to LRFT ("Large Rectangles FineTrapezoids").

· The Optimization radio buttons have been replaced by a checkbox. The former writingtime optimization is not available any more, the file size compaction is equivalent toswitch compaction on. The Python code has been changed accordingly.

· The fixed fields are displayed in layout view when entering manual field position

Defects Solved

· Zooming in on a large polygon did produced a wrong view for very high zoom factors dueto rounding errors in the VIEWER.

· For the DXF file elements Polyline and LwPolyline the DXF group code flag for closedpolygon was not extracted properly if the flag appeared in combination with other flags.

· The Shape PEC for arbitrary layouts has been improved

1.18.8 v4.1.1

Defects solved

· With layer-to-dose-class or datatype-to-dose-class mapping, the wrong datatype indices (wrongshot rank) were assigned during a JEOL Export if a hierarchical Heal was directly before theExport, or if a Merge was in between. This bug was introduced in v4.1.0.

· The Import of a bitmap has been modified for pixel-sizes smaller than 1µm. We now use thepixel-size as the database unit. In cases of large pixel sizes we still use 1um as the database unit.The issue has been that a bitmap Import with 2.5nm defined pixel became 3nm pixels as theImport used always a 1nm pixel database.

159Release Version


· Version 4.1.0 has not been able to load some flows with modules connected to itself. In the casesuch a flow was part of the flow library BEAMER could not start.

· On Windows the View button of a Metrology module inside a loop now opens the analysis viewand data sheet view if it is in a single flow. On Linux the View button of a Metrology modulealways opens the data sheet view.

· Metrology View after a Reset of the flow and a new calculation was not available.

· Multi core PEC including short range for files with large extent (several 1000 microns) but verylow vertex count (< approximately 10,000) caused a internal memory allocation problem thatstalled the computer on Linux.

1.18.9 v4.1.0

Enhancements

Machine Format Fracturing:

· Manual field placementoManual field placement is also available for JEOL v30 (has been included in v4.0.1 for Vistec

EBPG and VEP formats)oAllows to define the critical areas that shall be positioned in an individual field for avoiding

cuts and inaccuracies at field borders§ Interactive definition by table and using viewer (compatible to region extract)§ Definition by boxes in designated region layer§ Centering of selected features in manual field§ Optional exposure of rest of the layout by standard meander tiling

· Custom defined tool configurations for Vistec EBPG e-beam systemso Edit and save default tool configuration (list in drop down box)oAdd and delete available default configuration in drop down boxo The configuration is saved in the file VISTECEBPG.ini file located in the path

specified by GENISYS_BEAMER_EXPORT_CONFIGURATION_PATH, if the filecan not be found at this location, also GENISYS_BEAMER_PATH/Configuration isused to to save these files.

· New Fracturing Mode “Curved” for optimal fracturing of circles and ringsoCurved fracturing is a new method that allows to shift the vertices along the curve to

find the best possible fracturing, consistent with the picked resolution and beam-stepsize. The current implementation is detecting circles and rings and fractures thoseoptimal to writing parameter, independent of polygon vertices. The rest of the layout isfractured in LRFT mode.

o Existing Fracture Modes were renamed (no change in function)§ Mode 1 -> Conventional § Mode 2 -> LRFT – Large Rectangle Fine Trapezoids

· Export of binary data for ELIONIX e-beam systemoGenerate CON/CBC/CCC exposure datao Field size and position control (set field size, allow field overlaps, automatic floating

field)o Import of CCC data is not supported.



· Heidelberg DWL series laser writer supporto Layout BEAMER does now support the Heidelberg IMT DWL series of Mask Writers.

§ This includes also a rich and flexible configuration option for different DWL models andinstallation environments.

§ The supported format is the *.SDF data file format, which is required to be converted into afinal step into *.LIC files by using XCVONBE or GENLIC.

§ Layout BEAMER supports the import of the *.SDF binary pattern data files.

PEC:

· Major speed-up for long- and short range PECo Multi-threading of long range PEC and high performance short-range PEC is implemented. o Almost linear scaling of calculation time for up to 4 cores o The gain may saturate due to memory limitation for larger number of threads

· Enhanced PSF visualizationo The Fit dialog has been enhanced to show and compare multiple Gaussian's together with the

numerical data.o Optional quadratic x axis scaling for the PSF view

Layout Operation:

· Extract functionality enhancementsowhen extracting cells the user defined extent can now be seto names are now supported on region layerso selection of region layers via layer lists is now possible

· Unified layer/datatype concepto The handling of layers and datatypes has been unified across Layout BEAMER

dialogs and scripting interfaces. Layers can be addressed with e.g. 1(*) and datatypeswith *(1) and even specific combinations can be selected 2(3).

· FDA for Layer/Datatype combinationo The FDA is now able to process dose assign by layer, datatypes and combinations of

both.

· Improved layer number/name handling for different formats (e.g. DXF)

· Soft frame for all layout operation (including Boolean)o Soft frame is now available for all layout and Boolean operation. Large layouts may require

tiling of the layout. Soft frame is a overlapping region between tiles for avoiding cuts ofelements which can be assigned completely to one or the other tile. The function helps to avoid"slivers" smaller than the adjusted soft frame size. The parameter can be set with "double-click" in the module.

o Improved sub-tiling to avoid unnecessary cuts for elements with large number of vertices (mayrequire more memory)

Other Enhancements:

· Layout Viewer enhancementso In the layout viewer a measurement now shows the X and Y distance, as well as the total

distance.

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· Support of non-western characterso Double byte characters are used to avoid naming issues of paths in some non western

character-based languageso The enhancement to support Japanese characters through the implementation of Unicode, now

results in the ability to correctly read files and their dose tables from folders with Japanesecharacter names.

· The default temp directory is now the system temp directory. The user can change by modifyingher environment variables. In Python this is also controlled with variables.

· The Import DXF module has been improved, with the support of two variables available a DXFfile's header, one for length and one for angular units. If they are undefined, values are takenfrom the Import DXF dialog box. The relative Python variable was added as well.

· The Python commands have been adjusted for the unified layer / datatype handling. Thecommand "datatypeset" has been removed.

· The Filter module is now implemented in Python. · Support of the JEOL J01 format has been enhanced in the Import module to include the Ring

Command (RG)

Defects solved

· In an E-Beam simulation with figures smaller than 2 times alpha, the simulation would fail.· An asymmetrical dose assignment could occur during long range PEC if a figure needed to be

subdivided (fractured) into smaller figures. This fix may show changes in the Dose Table whencompared to a Dose Table for the same data but created with an earlier version.

· MINUS module has has "reactivated" dose information, which should have been removed byprevious modules. In the particular case where the result of a Heal module is the left input to aMINUS module, previous dose information was "re-activated".

· The Module Info of MINUS was reporting "target layer = 2", but the MINUS module maintainslayer of the left port. The module information is shows now "target layer / datatype = maintain".

· During an IWFL Export, an error would occur if the Beam Step Size was outside of the subfield,even if the overlap was less than one BSS. This restraint has been relaxed to allow fracturingwith a large BSS. Additionally, the numerical precision of the IWFL subfield bounds has beenimproved.

· When defining a variable an error would occur if there was a blank space in the definition, e.g.%bias% / 2 - the intent being half of the variable. The error was that everything after the firstblank space was not saved. The handling of blanks in module parameters has been improved.

· The error message "Can not merge layer named " would appear if there were blank spaces innames. The issue is solved by improved handling of layers and datatype names.

· If a Split module had more than two connections and one of the middle connections, not the firstor last, was removed, the saved flow could not be read back in. The error was "port not found".

· The Shape PEC routine has been enhanced to accept Gaussian's with gamma's greater than 1micrometer.

· The removal of collinear points when reading DXF files in the Import module has beenimproved. The tolerance used to be 1/2 half of the database unit; it is now 1/100 of the databaseunit.

· If a Vistec EBPG file (GPF/IWFL) had a defined field size less than the maximum, than theViewer would not calculate the offset correctly and show a shift when overlayed with anotherfile. This was a viewing problem only and has been corrected.

· The ABSMAG parameter of a GDS2 file was being read incorrectly.· When viewing in the Extract module, the coordinate system used was from the global parameter

settings. This resulted in the mouse coordinates being offset. The module now uses the originalsettings and ignores the stored settings.

· The GenISys internal format point spread function files (LPSF) now uses a compressed XMLformat, making them compatible between 32bit and 64bit systems.

· The incorrect date recorded in the header of a Vistec GPF file at end of months is fixed.



· The PSF fit has been enhanced with a more accurate FFT convolution of the beam size.· Positioning of the information from a Pick operation has been improved.· The layout viewer has been enhanced to store the current view colors as the default view colors.· E-beam simulation with an etch bias was displaying gaps in the contours.· The user is now prompted to save the changes, if just a label or a comment is changed in a flow. · When reading GDS2, TEXTLIB or LETXTLIB file and there was a Round Path command with

exactly two vertices, the Import module would not round the ends of the path.· The Grid module could loose zero width paths from a layout.· If a flow in version 4.0.x had a Merge module that was NOT the right-most module the flow

would error with the message "Input layout missing".· LETXTLIB (TXL) output now writes DATATYPE for geometries. · If long-range PEC was done on an empty layout and a layout with figures, and then the two

layouts were merged, all figures would have a dose of 65536.· When running on a Linux system, the log information always said "1" processor.· The log file was still recording the old names for field placement. The new names - "Fixed",

"Floating" and "Region Layer" - are now implemented for all the Elionix, JEOL and Vistecformats.

· To avoid problems with a user's limited privileges, the default temp folder is now the systemtemp folder.

· On an Ubuntu system, the module icons would not refresh when resetting or executing a flow.· Pushing the "Cancel" button when leaving the Export module did not restore the Export module

to its previous state. The process step would be recalculated even if nothing had been changed.· There were some cases where temporary files were not deleted when closing the session. With

the implementation of the system temp directory as the default temp directory, this has beenfixed.

· The possibility of erroneous and large (~8 data-base-units) edge movements has been eliminatedin the P-XOR module. A case might be a ruler lying on a many-pointed star; this would createmany, many intersections.

· Some special characters in the cell names in a CIF file, created an wrong error message. Thehandling and the error message have been improved.

· The Export empty layouts with dose information (e.g. extracted from a PEC corrected layout) toGPF has been saving the dose information, which generated issues at Import and Viewing.

· Import and viewing empty JEOL layouts has been corrected.· Clicking on "…" button next to "Region Layer" in the Extract dialog caused a crash. · In the Import module a JEOL file with a zero width path would not display properly with Shot

View turned on.· The position of the Split module was not properly displayed in some flows.· If a Bias module has a Corner Extension smaller than 1 AND very short distances between

vertices such that they would be removed, a error message is issued and process is aborted.· In Layout BEAMER versions 4.0.x if the global viewer is open and an executed module was

deleted the program would crash.· The E-Beam module in high performance mode could over-estimate a dose value. This occurred

in designs with many non-rectilinear shapes.· The short-range PEC high performance algorithm could produce overlapping figures.· It was possible to connect the last module in a Loop with the first, resulting in a recursive,

infinite process. Layout BEAMER has been enhanced to check for this condition.· Previously geometries less that one half of the beam step size were removed during a JEOL

Export fracture. This has been corrected.· A problem with the precision of the database unit in a DXF file has been corrected.· The Scale Dose Range option in the Export module was not working correctly when a layout

with manually placed fields was merged with anther layout, if only one of the layouts had beenproximity effect corrected or if the values were identical.

· In large flows with many Split and Merge modules, it could occur that after deleting ordisconnecting modules Layout BEAMER would become unstable and crash.

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· New algorithms introduced in v4.0.0 made most Heal operations faster. With data that had manylines with nearly similar slopes and nearly overlapping, the error message "Pattern fracturingerror. Error in file . . ." was generated and aborted.

· The AND module was incorrectly setting its extents equal to the bounding box of the two inputlayouts. Now the AND module sets its extent to the result of the AND operation.

· The case where a dimension of a trapezoid was between 2*Minimum Figure Size and3*Minimum Figure Size and the neighborhood was dense, overlapping figures were produced.

Known limitations

· In 32bit versions of Layout BEAMER some cases require that threads be limited to 4, because ofmemory limitation. Under such condition the user setting will be ignored.

· The Windows installer sets an environment variable to point to the correct configuration files forHeidelberg and Vistec format descriptions. It was observed that these variables are not rightaway visible to Layout BEAMER when next starting. Logging out and logging in again correctedthis issue.

· Stability has been improved, although some GUI stability issues in Ubuntu 9 and 10 are stillopen.

· The delete of user a library is disabled for a Linux installation

1.19 v4.0

1.19.1 v4.0.4

Enhancements

· Improvements on fracturing and dose assignment for the short range PECprocessingo The short range processing has been enhanced to better detect adjacent edges and

adjust the fracturing for dose assignment. In addition, the numerical stability of thecomputation has been improved

· Sceleton Monte Carlo simulatoro The Monte Carlo simulation SceletonX is available for Linux 32 & 64 bit based systems

as well as for Windows 32bit.

Defects solved

· SR PEC error in hot-spot detectiono For ultra-fine non-Manhattan gaps, the short range correction did not detect all adjacent

features correctly, leading to an incorrect dose assignment

· Export Main Field Preview didn’t updateo The main field preview only showed the default main field size for JEOL and Vistec

formats, and didn't update with a change of the main field size

· Using custom defaults for GPF Export format resulted in an error messageo In case a user stored formatter defaults, not all values were read correctly, leading to

an inconsistency in these formatter parameters

· Merging two empty layouts results in erroro When attempting to merge two empty layouts, an error was reported. An example for a

scenario leading to this error is a loop that processes a layout layer by layer



· Extract issues in complex flowo A more complex flow of operations (merging multiple layouts with a subsequent

extraction of layers and a region) caused Layout BEAMER to abort the processing andto return with the error message “Invalid element xx encountered”

· Hierarchical Heal dropped data for overlaying one dimensional arrayso Two overlapping one dimensional arrays having the identical pitch resulted in dropped

data during a hierarchical heal operation

· Hierarchical Heal dropped data for large arrayed cellso If an array could be maintained during a hierarchical heal operation, but had overlapping

instances, the modified healed cells that were so large that the operation needed tosubtitle dropped the adjacency information that would have been needed to merge intothe cell

· Layout BEAMER did not terminate properlyo For user flows, the hierarchical structure of the flow caused Layout BEAMER to not

terminate correctly and to keep hold of the license

· Layout BEAMER 4.0.3 couldn't start up with Japanese characters present in thehome patho Uni-code characters in the users home path prevented Layout BEAMER to startup

· Extract region after merging two layouts using layer names resulted in emptyregionso CIF and DXF support layer names. Merging these layouts and extracting a region

resulted in empty layouts

1.19.2 v4.0.3

Enhancements

· Export DXFo support for exporting layouts in DXF format has been added

· Export JEOL - initial field number positiono Field numbering now starts at the upper left corner

· Extract functionalityo when extracting cells the user defined extent can now be seto names are now supported on region layerso selection of region layers via layer lists is now possible

· Additional Linux platformso RedHat 32bit is now supportedo Ubuntu 10 64bit is now supported

Defects solved

· Importing 32bit LEDB files o importing 32bit LEDB files under a 64bit system created an error message

· Dose class definition for GDS with LDT

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o When a GDS file was imported and an associated LDT file didn't either contain dosevalues for all layers in the GDS file, or the layer dose assignment weren't continuous ithappened that dose values were not matching the definitions

· Export with CIF when using non-Manhattan style arrayso layouts with angled style arrays were incorrectly exported when using the CIF export

option · Healing arrays created flattened layoutso arrays with a negative pitch or a pitch of 0 and a high number of repetitions triggered

the generation of a flat layout· Default paths were ignoredo When an Export was connected to an Import that contained a different source path,

then the path of the Export was overwritten to be the path of the import.· Generation of overlaps during Bias operationo Positive Bias for a hierarchical layout with a very large number of elements (so “sub-

tiling” is required), overlaps were generated.· DXF warnings and loss of polygon pointso DXF designs with elements at a distance of only 0.1nm have been snapping to 1nm grid

losing data points.· Minus operation for highly dense layoutso The Minus operation could yield incorrect results when processing highly dense layouts

e.g. subtracting a pin array from a square.· Export GPF with empty fieldso It could happen that Export of GPF with multiple empty fields stopped processing,

making a “kill” of BEAMER program necessary· Export VEP missed update of defaultso When changing the machine in VEP export, some defaults were not properly updated

1.19.3 v4.0.2

Enhancements

· VEP compaction controloAn switch has been introduced in VEP format to disable compaction for avoiding

stitching issues at older machines· GPF beam step size fracture controlo It is now possible to enter and independently control the beam step size fracturing using

the switch. As default beam step size fracturing is ON

Defects solved

· FDA dose assignment for datatypeso The FDA issue for data types (in Version 4.0.0), ignoring the assigned absolute or

relative doses, has now been fixed· Setting JEOL Export extent smaller than pattern extento Setting the extent in the JEOL Export dialog to a value smaller than the pattern extent

caused a error message (in Version 4.0.0). With this fix it is possible again to set userextent smaller than the pattern extent.



1.19.4 v4.0.1

Enhancements

· Improvements to Manual Field Placement for VEP and GPF Manual field placement for VEP has been enhanced, and this functionality has beenadded to GPF. o Boxes can now be used to define the content and the position in a field.o Pattern data within a box will be placed in a separate fieldo The center of the field is identical to the center of the box

The boxes can be predefined in the layout or defined interactively within the export dialog

Defects solved

· TXL CIRCLEPATH command generated incorrect circleso Using the CIRCLEPATH with a very high value (> 1000) for the vertices in Linux

incorrectly generated a circle · Python script language couldn’t be initiatedo The Python scripting didn’t start correctly due to a library error.

· VTK reporting output when viewing VEP fileso Large amounts of report data was written to the command line when viewing VEP file

under Linux· TRANSFORM and MERGE caused incorrect layout scalingo Using the TRANSFORM with shift and scale and merging the result with another layout

with MERGE generated an incorrectly scaled result.

1.19.5 v4.0.0

VisualFLOWTM GUI· User interface enhancements and redesign

o Short-cut buttons “Run-To” and “View Layout” were added to all modules (noneed to right-click and open the module menu)

o The traffic light concept representing the module status has been replaced bystatus sensitive module colors in conjunction with the short-cut icon§ A yellow module indicates that the parameters have not been set, and

therefore the module can’t be run (the former red indicator)§ A red module with a “Run-To” icon indicates that the module is ready to be

executed (the former yellow indicator)§ A red module with the “View Layout” icon indicates that the module has

been executed and results are available (the former green indicator)o Comments can be added to the modules

§ Right click, “Edit Comment…”§ Viewable with mouse-over module

o Enhanced dynamic control of the flow design windowo The tabs in the information area (Module Info, Log Info, Show Python Code)

are switchable using the “View” menuo New colors, fonts and icon designs, including a new icon for user defined flows

(as stored in "Central Flows" or "User Flows") that resembles “folder” design,and allows longer labels up to two lines

· Results of modules in a Loop can be "collected" by activating "Collect Loop Results" ineach module’s context menu. The results are available at the End Loop module

Viewing

167Release Version


· Layout Viewer enhancements and redesigno The Viewer menu structure has been streamlined to make navigation easier and fastero Layer (and datatype) are displayed, with their colors, on a side menu. For each layer

(datatype) entry, the drawing can be enabled / disabled, the colors can be definedeasily, and elements can be drawn "marked"

o The hierarchy tree is now available on a second tabo Please note that the behavior of the measure function and the pick function has

changed. A measurement now starts with a single right click, and ends with a secondsingle right click. In between those clicks, the user can navigate (zoom in, zoom out,pan) around the layout file. Control of the measurement direction (any angle or limitedangles) and snapping options are available in a drop down menu on the tool bar. Sincea single right click is now used for measurement, the “pick” function requires a rightdouble right click

oNew colors, fonts and icon designs

· Docked / Detachable Global Viewero The Global Viewer now opens within the main window and can be detached when

desired, or switched off using buttons on the short cut menu

Split and Merge Modules· The modules Split and Merge have been enhanced to handle multiple outputs and

inputs. This enhancement eliminates the need to use multiple copies of thesemodules.

· The Split and Merge modules now have the same look as the other modules in thelibrary.

· The Split module changes to a small square indicating the connection point wheremultiple modules may be attached

· The Merge module has been moved up to the “Layout Operation” area in thelibrary. For handling a dynamic number of input ports, a new empty input portautomatically opens when connecting a module to the open input port, .

User Flows, Variable and File Handling· Parameters of modules within a user flow can be set as variables and saved. When

using a stored module having a variable, you will be prompted to set the value forthat variable.

· It is now possible to define a variable with a formula, e.g.:

If %name% is set to 23 then in the following examples

%( 10+23+%name% )% will return 56%(100+%name%)% will return 123

For a more detailed syntax, please refer to the manual or contact GenISys support.

· Function for automatically creating a barcode by script is available (please contactGenISys support for more details)

· The user can define a directory for saving all log and temporary files, underFile/Properties

Automation / Scripting· Scripting in the Python language has been implementedo Major functions can be executed from a script, without using the GUI



o The Python commands of a module are displayed in the information area (switchablein toolbar View menu.

oNote: Python installation is not part of the Layout BEAMER package. Most Linuxinstallations include Python. For Windows and some other systems, it needs to beinstalled. Python is free-ware.

PEC and Simulation Enhancements· Predefined PEC dose class assignmentoA predefined table of dose classes can be used to assign dose values into dose classes.

This will make sure that a layout will use always the same dose classes (clock table).Use cases include i) to avoid frequency limit issues, or ii) to eliminate the need to copyand paste a new modulation table into the JEOL jobdeck file.

· Additional process correction for loading effectso Process correction has been enhanced to compensate for some process effects, e.g.

developer loading on large exposed areas. Some low-contrast resists leave residues inlarge exposed areas, caused by lower development rates in high density areas. Theseenhancements now allow the user to add a density and radius dependent dose factor.The required parameter needs to be determined experimentally.

· PSF visualizationoAfter importing a numerical PSF, the data can be visualized and compared against a fit

of manually set Gaussians. With this visualization the quality of the fit can be assessedby the user and adjustments of the Gaussian parameters can be made.

· Saving of fitted data in LPSF format (raw numerical data, including fit data) o The fit results and the original table data can be saved in an .LPSF file (Layout

BEAMER format). This will accelerate future use of the PSF in PEC corrections andsimulations, as the data is already prepared for the use in Layout BEAMER

· The simulation region definition (“Full Layout Contour” –> “Selected SimulationRegion”) is enhanced using the integrated viewer

· E-beam simulation uses the new Layout Viewer for displaying the results, using aimproved layer display for multiple thresholds

· The handling of dose in the FDA and Merge modules has been enhanced: oDefault: "Maintain dose values - adjust number of dose classes"oOptional: "Fixed number of dose Classes - adjust dose value"

Layout Operations, Format Extensions and Machine Format Fracturing· Significant acceleration of the Heal module for patterns with angled lines· The LETXTLIB (LTxt) format now supports circles, rings and circle segments. For the

syntax please contact support or refer to the manual.· The JEOL 01 Import now allows to specify the design units of the imported layout

· Collecting results of parameterized runso In previous versions, when running loops the results needed to be exported to files for

later use. The collection of loop results is now available without storing the resultsexplicitly

· Support for the Heidelberg formato The Heidelberg DWL 2000 format has been added to the Export module (license

required)· Extract Layer supports to view and to select from the actually loaded layers using a

drop-down menu (the previous module needs to be executed)· Extract uses integrated viewer

169Release Version


o The region extraction now uses an integrated Viewer to define the extraction regions.The regions defined by a table or interactively can be immediately seen in the layoutor in the table

· New switch for JEOL J51 Export to set "high resolution" and "large field" machine type(at EOS Mode 7/8)

Changes

· IF module has been removed· The PEC Curved fracturing mode has been removed· The module name of Import and Export automatically contains the format type,

e.g. Import of a GDS layout gets the name "In GDS"· The default setting in Import for GDS boxes is activated (boxes will be imported),

the default was "off" before· The "softframe" function for PXOR is disabled

Defects solved

· Adding an array of elements (e.g. circles) using the integrated LayoutEditor· VEP random field placement for small field sizes has been resolved· DXF files with very large extents can be loaded· The machine specific shot placement in e-beam simulation after JEOL Import is

working· Hierarchical Elionix CEL export has now an option to replace existing files· Hierarchical Bias is fixed for the special case of a one dimensional array with the

pitch set to 0 and repetition of 1.· The dose assignment at Import of PEC corrected JEOL files is accurate by direct

dose assignment (no new dose qualification) · Not setting parameter when loading FTXT files is fixed· Dose assignment accuracy for long range PEC, with Manhattan fracturing in

hierarchical layouts, has been improved· For EXPORT, an error message was added for the case where a user extent is

smaller than the bounding box· Log file information for Export VEP/FRE, HIMT, MEBES and NuFlare has been

extended· The GPF log file is adjusted to include frequency data consistent to CVIEW format· Inaccurate cell name handling in some cases of hierarchical NOT operations is

resolved· The PSF fit has been improved for some specific cases, especially with strong mid-

range contribution· Short Range Correction has been improved for cases with fractures inside the

polygons· Contour line and pick now show the same image intensity value, using a consistent

interpolation· The progress bar for the XOR module is now working



1.20 v3.4

1.20.1 v3.4.5

Solved Issues

· Extract of regions: Missing arrayed layout elementsoRunning an extract of multiple regions dropped layout elements in case the region of

interest contained arrayed elements. In version 3.4.4 this bug was fixed for a singleregion. This bug fix now is valid for an arbitrary number of regions.

1.20.2 v3.4.4

Solved Issues

· Extract of regions: Missing arrayed layout elementsoRegion extract on a region containing arrayed elements didn't deliver proper results

and dropped layout elements. This bug has been resolved.· Export GPF: Crash with multithreadingo Export GPF format led to a crash in case of multi-thread processing, since each thread

allocated memory individually whereas the sum of all was larger than the systemallowed. This has been resolved

· Export GPF: Crash with file optimization and soft border optiono Export GPF on an arrayed layout crashed in case file size optimization and soft border

were switched on. This has been resolved..· PEC: Incorrect dose assignment using short range PEC on large layoutsoOn large layouts, short range dose correction might assign incorrect dose values if the

correction area had to be subdivided into tiles. In such cases the features were notreceiving the short range corrected dose and were only back scatter corrected.

· Dose assignment: Deviation of dose values between PEC and Exporto The Export to machine format assigned dose values which are different from the

computed PEC dose values. The difference is less than 1% and affected the V30, GPFand VEP export. This bug was introduced in v3.4.3 and resolved with this version.Versions 3.4.2 and earlier did not show the dose value difference.

1.20.3 v3.4.3

Enhancements

· Maximum PEC dose is now user definableoUp to now there was a hard coded cutoff dose for the Proximity Effect Correction.

This cutoff dose has been increased, and is now accessible to the user in the Accuracytab of the PEC Module parameter dialog.

Solved Issues

· Jeol v30 ExportoNo JDI file was written in cases with only one single dose class to export. This has

been corrected – even a single dose class will generate a JDI file now.· IWFL Exporto The IWFL multi-exposure mode generated assist features which impacted writing

performance, this has now been fixed.· DXF Import

171Release Version


oDXF layouts with very large coordinate values created an overflow issue due to theinternal resolution of Layout BEAMER. Now the DXF Import adjusts the internalresolution to avoid coordinate overflow.

· FDA using a multiplicative dose factoro The FDA module applied the square of the specified multiplicative dose factor when

exporting to tool formats (GPF, VEP, JEOL). This has been fixed now.· PEC module segmentation faultoOn LINUX 32 platforms, PEC on any angle layouts with very shallow angles ran into a

segmentation fault due to a numerical instability. This has been fixed now· Transform scaling erroro Scaling of a layout resulted in a corrupted layout when exporting to TXL. This has

been fixed now.

1.20.4 v3.4.2

Enhancements· Virtual dongle licensingo CodeMeters support for virtual dongles has been enabled for usage in Layout

BEAMER· VEP Export dialog updateso Added units to the dialog boxes which where previously missing

· Normalization of dose for the Exporto The option has been renamed to "Normalize Dose Range"o The normalization works in a way that for a normal long range (back scatter) PEC the

theoretical minimal dose will be 1.0.o All dose values are divided by the value (1+eta)/(1+2*eta)o The change is applicable for Vistec VEP, FRE, GPF and JEOL V30, J51 formats

Solved Issues

· PEC error during correctiono Using a specific sample layout, the PEC correction proved to be incorrect. This issue

has been resolved· PEC short range (forward scatter) correction erroro Using a specific sample layout, the short range correction wasn't modulating the dose

suffciently leading to over exposed results. This error has been resolved.· Crash during the viewing of a layout in Export under a Linux environmento A crash occured when viewing exported files under Linux. This error has been resolved.

1.20.5 v3.4.1

Enhancements

· Edit – layout editing moduleo The new module "Edit" enables major CAD function

- Draw a new layout by starting with a Edit module- Edit a layout at any point of the flow by inserting an Edit module

· Multithreading – the following modules are now enabled for multithreadingoHeal, P-XOR, NOT, Bias, XOR, OR, AND, MINUS

· BMP Importo Import of BMP image files is now supported with a threshold

· Import - GPF resolution usageoDuring the import of GPF files the resolution used is now set to the file’s resolution

units· PEC – vastly improved short-range algorithm



o Switches for "High Performance" (new, and default) and "Legacy" (old algorithm)oGaussian input is internally sorted (larger Gamma values are interpreted as beta)

· Shape-PEC – the following corrections have been enhancedo Line ends oContactsoCorrection for target dose values different than 0.5

· E-Beam enhancementso The "High Performance" and "Legacy" switches have been added to the e-beam

simulation GUI

Solved Issues

· DXF merging oA bug that occurred during merging of DXF files when layer names were used, has

been fixed· Merging transformed layoutso This bug introduced unwanted scaling when merging transformed layouts, and has

been fixed.· IWFL checks o Internal checking of the consistency of an IWFL file produced an error where no error

has been. This has been fixed.· JEOL Export single line treatmentoDuring Export of a JEOL file, “Dose Correction for Single Lines” was checked by

default. This consumed shot ranks for the exported file. The default for this option isnow un-checked.

· LEDB Fileso The extent information when processing a .LDB files was lost. This has been fixed

Modifications

· Export – JEOL v30oOn the Advanced tab, the frequency settings have been removed to avoid confusion

about frequency usage.

Open Issues

· Export - FDA to v30 fileso Exporting layouts with dose modulation generated by FDA introduces additional dose

classes· Crash during PECoAn unexplained crash during PEC

· Layout Viewer screen resizeoAn unwanted resizing of the Viewer screen happens without an obvious trigger

1.20.6 v3.4.0

Enhancements1. Processing Time· Hierarchical Processing o In addition to Heal (already available in release v3.3), the modules Bias, NOT (tone reversal),

PXOR, Merge now make use of, and preserve, hierarchy· Multithreading and Distributed Processing

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o Export for Vistec (VEP, GPF), JEOL (v30, j51), NuFlare VSB12 can now take advantage ofparallel processing by using threads

o Utilization of four threads on one computer is included at no extra charge. An optionalDistributed Processing (DP) license is needed for processing on multiple computers in a cluster

· PEC Short Range Correctiono A figure based convolution algorithm is introduced for short-range dose correction, resulting in a

major speed-up in most correction scenarios (> 10x)· Algorithm Tuningo The baseline polygon algorithms haven been enhanced, resulting in speedups for Heal, Bias

and Transform for certain layout types

2. PEC and Simulation Module· Figure based short- and mid-range PECo The figure based short-and mid-range correction algorithm, which was introduced for “Shape

PEC” in v3.3.0, is now available for PEC with dose modulation. The algorithm is not onlyextremely fast for most layout scenarios, but also offers much higher accuracy. The sensitivityof the correction to mid-range effects (e.g. 60nm resist effects) is improved by individualtreatment.

This new algorithm is only available when using a Gaussian approximation. Table based PSFs haveto be converted to a Gaussian approximation. The extension to using table based PSFs is plannedfor a future release. The figure based algorithm has some limitation for complex curved layouts and some special cases(e.g. small circles). Please contact Support for further details.The standard image based short-range PEC of earlier versions is still available and is the default. · Figure based e-beam simulationo The figure based convolution algorithm is also implemented in the E-Beam simulation module.

This improves the simulation accuracy, especially the accuracy of short- and mid-range effects.· Enhancement of “Interactive” modeo The interactive mode now simulates resist contours for single and multiple thresholds. It is

possible to switch the intensity image off and just see the resist contours. The calculation of theresist contour simulation is compatible with the full layout mode, including the possibility toapply “diffusion” before calculating the contour. The output of the E-Beam module is the resist contours of the last simulated area, as polygons.The contour layout can be saved (e.g. Export GDS) or processed using layout operation (e.g.XOR, Merge,…).

o The “Resist” module has been removed as the enhancements of the Interactive mode madethis function obsolete.

o Different simulation mode for Gaussian and Numerical PSFIt is possible to observe differences in the results between these two modes.§ The Gaussian mode uses the new figure based convolution algorithm§ The Numerical mode takes benefit of the pixel based convolution method

· Converting numerical PSF data to Gaussian data uses a pre –convolution of the raw data toimprove the fit quality for the energy ratios

· Enhancement of 3D Edge PECo The algorithm has been improved for resist sensitivity ratios > 0.5o The exposure has been merged to one single exposure. This limits frequency issues caused by

low doses· Alignment of the PEC fracturing grid (isodose grid) to the feature origino The alignment of the isodose grid to the feature origin reduces slivers

3. Machine Format Fracturing· JEOL v30/j51 “Random” (Floating) Fieldo A new floating field fracturing mode is introduced for sparse layouts. This mode optimizes the

field position and the writing order of the fields. This improves writing time and quality· JEOL v30 View of Main Fieldso The view of the fields shows the correct position and order of the JEOL main fields

· NuFlare VSB12 Fileso Import and Export is now available

· MEBES Fileso Enhancements to job-deck import

· NPI



o Enhancements to dithering for this format

4. Import· DXF import of “Spline”“Spline” entries in DXF are now imported using a Bezier function to represent the spline. They canbe Imported as a zero width path or a polygon. Please note that only closed splines are supported

5. Automation - CATS CINC to BEAMER FTXT Conversion · First implementation for converting include files to flow files . A list of commands is available in

the manual

6. User Interface and Viewer· Layout VIEWERo The layout origin is now displayed in the VIEWER§ A line is drawn along the X and Y axes, through the origin§ Two solid lines run through the origin of the design to represent the X and Y axis. This allows

better orientation. The display can be toggled using the View / View Parameters dialog o Right clicking on layout elements will now highlight the element with grey shade and will display

the polygon points as small square dots on the outline of the polygono The arrow keys can now be used to navigate through the layout

Using the arrow keys one can shift the view area in the direction of the arrow key· Field visualizationo The visualization of an imported machine file will now also visualize the fields as they are stored

in the binary file. The binary file must support the field information and the view must be enabled via View / ShowFields. The Field Settings dialog is purely informational when using such a binary file, andcannot be changed.

· The information pane has been enhanced o The log file of the current session is displayed in the “Log Info” tab. This provides

instant access to a large amount of information and possible warnings.o The “Module Info” tab provides the parameters of the selected module.

· The number of threads used can be controlled under “File”-> “Properties” menu· The "Knowledge base save" under File has been renamed to "Library save"· GENISYS_BEAMER_USER variable to control profiles within Layout BEAMERo Setting the GENISYS_BEAMER_USER variable allows the selection of which profile should be

loaded, meaning which user generated libraries and settings are loaded.o By default Layout BEAMER looks in the .GenISys folder of the user’s login directoryo With GENISYS_BEAMER_USER set:§ Layout BEAMER looks in .GenISys/< GENISYS_BEAMER_USER>/ for settings

7. Licensing· Licensing for Multithreading o The usage of four threads is free, additional threads require licensing

Changes· JEOL Export The minimum resolution that can be set for the 9300 FS has been limited to 2nm. This has beenimplemented to match the 9300 FS capability.

Resolved issues· Hierarchical merge ignores database units when performed on multiple layouts – this resulted in a

scaling of processed layouts.· PXOR lost primitives in distributed process mode· Field visualization of JEOL files started incorrectly at the lower left corner, instead of the upper

left corner· Resolved issues with random field placement for certain structures· Resolved fitting inaccuracies when using double Gaussian mode.· DXF layouts missed TABLES statement· EBEAM simulation error using diffusion has been fixed· Shape PEC generated layouts exceeding the extent and thus failed the export

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· Different results between EBEAM “interactive” and “full layout” have been resolved by modelunification

· FDA incorrectly used formulas and variables· Incorrect units were causing a crash. Entering values like 0,1 instead of 0.1 (German vs. English

number format) caused a crash· Checking for valid layer names in GDS to properly import layouts with Unicode characters in

layer names

1.21 v3.3

1.21.1 v3.3.5

Solved Issues

· Export - JEOL export crashed when single line was on field boundaryo A crash occured when the a single line was positioned on the field

boundary. This has been fixed.· Export - Viewing of signle lines in the exported file

o When viewing an exported layout that contained single lines these were notvisible. This has been resolved by always enabling the viewing of singlelines for the export.

· Import – Conversion of open poly lines into a polygon failedo When importing a sequence of open poly lines that in sum define a polygon a

small gap could result into failed closure of the polygon. This has been resolvedby introducing a minor patch line if the gap is around half the resolution grid.

· FDA, 3D PEC and Shape PEC - Export dialog was set to file open modeo The export dialog used to write tables define in the modules was set to be file

open. This disabled on some operating systems the possibility to provide aname for the to be saved file, therefore making the export impossible. This hasbeen resolved.

· Viewer - dark lines during viewingo During viewing hierachical layouts black lines were visible. This has been fixed.

· Shape PEC - overcorrection for cornerso The shape PEC algorithm could in some cases overcorrect corners leading to

wrong correction results when large segment sizes were used. This has beenfixed.

1.21.2 v3.3.4

Solved Issues

· Export - GPF export was crashing with 0.250µm resolution settingo A crash occured when the export was set to be using a 0.250µm resolution for

the GPF. This crash has been fixed.· EBeam – using diffusion with numerical PSF gave different results then using

Gaussian PSFo Doing an ebeam simulation with a numerical PSF being used and utilizing the

diffusion parameter resulted in incorrect results. This has been resolved.· Resist - The resist simulation module produced inaccurate results when diffusion

was usedo The resist module produced incorrect results at the outline of the

simulation area when using diffusion. Now the outline is truncated basedupon the diffusion used which provides a smaller result but is correct at thethe outlines of that result.



· Library - copying a folder in the folder <user>/BEAMER_FLOW_LIBRARYresulted into a crash when starting Layout BEAMER

o The crash has been resolved.

1.21.3 v3.3.3

Enhancements

· Viewer - slow drawing speed for MEBES job decks o The viewing of MEBES job decks was very slow. The performance has been

improved significantly and viewing is now possible with higher speed

· Import - Jeol 01 availableo A first basic implementation of the Jeol 01 format is available

Solved Issues

· E-Beam - simulated resist contours generated incorrect results when diffusion wasusedo An issue related to the Diffusion parameter with a value being set above 0 in

the E-Beam module has been resolved· PEC – Hierarchical layouts not always being processed

o When hierarchy was present in some layouts, an internal check for short rangecorrection prevented the correction of some layouts when a short rangecorrection was deemed to be necessary. This has been resolved.

· PEC - very high dose class valueso During PEC very large values for the correction occurred. These values have

now been limited· Import - Importing Elionix .CEL files used an incorrect resolution

o This issue has been resolved by internally checking the data before setting theresolution

1.21.4 v3.3.2

Enhancements

· PSF fitting - enhancement of accuracyo The PSF fitting algorithm has been enhanced and will now provide slightly

different but more accurate results. Specially of very low KeV the algorithmsignificantly improves the accuracy of the fit.

· Export - VEP performance tuningo several improvements were implemented in the VEP format, so that exported

files are exported faster

Solved Issues

· Export - file extension missingo The Export module in the 64bit Linux version didn’t attach the extension of the

machine format file· Heal - incorrectly assigned data type

o The Heal module didn’t assign the datatype specified in the GUI to the healedlayout

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· Heal – layout integrity issues resolvedo in the case of overlapping arrays, where one of these arrays is rotated by 90°,

180° or 270° the Heal didn't remove the overlaps as expected. This happend ina crosspatch figures.

o in the case of two arrays with the same number of columns, number of rowsand identical pitch, the arrays were merged into one array but the overlapremained.

· Import - Layouts from a few third party tools were imported with an incorrect scale· Export - Layouts read by third party tools were not displayed correctly· Export – JEOL format

o The writing order of subfields has been changed from meander to column-wiseplacement to minimize drift effects during writing

· Viewer - erased pick pointso Using the Viewer the measurement pick points were erased during zoom to full

layout· Minus – soft frame has been disabled

o To prevent a possible error with the soft frame treatment in Minus, the softframe has been disabled for Minus operations



1.21.5 v3.3.1

Enhancements

· DXF Formatter - Import unitso The DXF import is now supporting an additional unit named "mils" (Milli

inches)· ELIONIX Formatter - Option to control the writing of dose information to the

CEL fileo A checkbox has been added to allow the control whether the dose information

is written to the CEL file or not.· GDS Formatter - Import zero path

o Zero paths have now an option to be assigned a width which will transform thezero width paths into lines

· PEC - Dose accuracy (replacing number of dose classes) o The parameter "Number of Doseclasses" that was used in prior versions had the

issue that there was no control on how accurate the result will be (since theresulting accuracy is also a function of the dose range computed by the PEC).Since CD control ties to dose accuracy, it does make sense to control the PECdose accuracy directly (in parallel, the dose accuracy of an E-Beam writer is onthe order of 1%,). Therefore, a new mode "Accuracy" is available now andallows the user to define the accuracy needed for the dose class steps. Inparallel, the prior mode "Number of Doseclasses" is still available, since for E-Beam tools with limited number of dose classes (e.g. 32) it makes more sense tojust use what the machine can do.

Solved Issues

We list here errors reported by customers that were fixed:· JEOL Formatter - Data type to Dose Classo The export of v30 files had an error for converting data types to dose classes. The data

types were not correctly mapped into the dose classes when the optionCOMPACTION was turned on. This has now been resolved.

· ELIONIX Formatter - multiple issueso Including Ope Code for all lines in the CEL exporto Sub files of a hierarchical export can now be read without the need for the top fileo Incorrect base dose information in the exported CEL fileo SD code is only exported for PEC processed layouts otherwise an SD 0 is written to

the exported CEL file.· HEAL - increased fracturing during healing in overlap modeo In overlap correction mode, the HEAL introduced numerous additional polygons

leading to unnecessary elements during processing.· GUI - the position of the split bars that devide library, work pane and info pane was

changing between multiple BEAMER sessionsoWhen opening and closing Layout BEAMER multiple times one could observe that

the split bars were moving with each close and reopen. This has been resolved.

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1.21.6 v3.3.0

Enhancements

· PEC and Process Correction - This version of Layout BEAMER has the followingadvanced correction technologies enhancements:o 3-D PEC – a new module with two modes:

§ 3-D-Surface PEC: Correction for defined resist heights over the layout (e.g.three dimensional optical elements like lenses, lens arrays, 3-D gratings,zone plates, 3-D holograms, 3-D MEMS devices)

§ 3-D-Edge PEC: Correction for multiple lateral dimensions at differentlayers of multilayer resist (e.g. T-Gate, Bridge etc.)

o Shape PEC: Correction of short-range and mid-range effects by applyinggeometry correction (moving edges of the layout) as an alternative to dosemodulation. shape correction should be combined with long-range (backscattering) correction using dose modulation.

o Calibration of PSF (correction function) to experimental data:§ The Metrology module has been enhanced to accept import of metrology

data and can be combined with the E-Beam simulation module andOptimizer module for automated fitting of correction parameters tomeasured data. This offers the capability to include short and mid-rangeprocess effects (exposure, resist, etching etc.) which are not modeled byMonte Carlo simulated PSFs.

· Simulationo Enhancement of Full Layout Contour mode of e-beam simulation by adding a

very fast and accurate “Line Simulation”. These are cut-lines which aredefined by a metrology file. Combination with the Metrology and the Optimizermodule enables the fitting of parameters to measured data.

o Global Optimizer for fitting variable to target data. The main use case is fittingof the correction function (PSF), but it is a general optimizer for fitting anyparameter to target data.

· Layout Operationo The new Filter module can be used for filtering (or selecting) layout elements

by width, height and area, or a combination of multiple criteria. The target layeror datatype of the result can be specified by the user.

o The Heal module now includes an option for “Overlap Removal” only, withoutmerging abutting polygons into one polygon.

o The Bias module now includes an option to apply asymmetrical bias (X- or Y-bias only). It is possible to apply a bias of half a database unit, which results ina shift of the element center by one database unit.

o The Transform module now includes an option to apply asymmetrical scale, i.e.different scale for X and Y.

· Export (Machine) Drivero Angle dependent dose correction for single lines for JEOL v30o JEOL Export:

- 9300FS 100kV is the default machine type tool- 5500 series machine type is now available

o Vistec GPF menu enhancements for setting main-, sub-field resolution (subresolution mode support)

o GPF Export reports number of trapezoids to log file



o Vistec GPF repeated parallelogram compaction has now become default forexport

o The extension of the Vistec IWFL format to dose classes greater than 8, bymulti-exposure in one field.

o Optional optimized fracturing (Fracture Mode 2) for convex polygons. Thefracturing mode used in previous releases is on by default (Fracture Mode 1).

o Vistec VEP automated floating field for sparse layoutso Import VEP reports Beam Step Size (BSS) to log fileo VEP MultiCore usage for Linux 64bit version o Layer / Datatype to Dose Index mapping for JEOL and Vistec VEPo NEW: Support of Elionix CEL machine format for Import and Exporto NEW: Support of MEBES format for Import and Exporto Polygons can be converted to single lines for DXF import (user option)o Enhancement of machine field display in the layout viewer

· User Interfaceo Global Layout Viewer window available directly from the tool bar

§ A new viewing option is available to give a preview of module resultswithout the need to open the Layout VIEWER via the module contextmenu. The view in Global Viewer updates automatically as your selectionmoves from module to module.

o Layout Viewer§ Reporting of the current database unit and grid analysis results, in the

information window§ Save current settings as default (separate menu entry)§ Userdefined colors for background, layer and datatype § Zoom positions are now saved when toggling between layouts in Multiview

o StartUp directory is a new option under File Preferences that sets the importpath to the same path where Layout BEAMER was started

· Performance Optimizationo Faster long range (back scattering) correctiono Distributed processing on a cluster is available on request

· Supported Platformso Linux 64 bit

Solved Issues

We list here errors reported by customers that were fixed:· FDA dose assignment error for Linux 32bit application - for special

constellations under Linux the FDA could produce inconsistent results which isfixed now

· Shot display for GPF: beam size is editable now for view and E-Beamsimulation

· Improved GPF fracturing for slanted lines

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1.22 v3.2

1.22.1 v3.2.3

Enhancements

· Default of subresolution modeo The default value for the sub resolution mode has been set to be a multiple of

the chosen resolution during export.

Solved Issues

· Hierarchical healing cause layout element duplicationo On a special layout it occurred during hierarchical healing that a few layout

elements were duplicated. This has been corrected.

· GPF export wrote layout element twiceo During a GPF export it occurred for special cases that layout elements were

written twice to the output file where the mode "optimize write time" wasactive.

1.22.2 v3.2.2

Solved Issues

· Textlib extent wasn’t properly seto It occurred for a case when importing a Textlib file, that the extent didn’t match

the true layout extent.

· VEP fields were not properly displayedo Due to incorrect header information in the VEP file the field display in the

VIEWER was incorrect.

1.22.3 v3.2.1

Enhancements

· VEP Field displayo The Viewer is now enabled to display the VEP fields along with the layout

data.· IWFL importer

o The IWFL format is now available for importing into Layout BEAMER

· GDS import of boxeso The GDS format can now import ‘boxes’ defined in the design. To maintain

consistency on the Import settings dialog, a check box is provided to enable theimport of boxes.

· VEP import support circleso The VEP Import function now recognizes ‘circle’ definitions in a VEP format file.

Solved Issues

· PEC crashed during operation for specific layouto Using a specific layout and PEC setting caused a crash of the PEC module

· Correct rounding error during conversion of circles to polygons



o The mapping of the circle polygon points to the database grid was in specialcases incorrect.

· Resizing the Viewer during interactive E-Beam simulation caused a hango During interactive E-Beam simulation the resizing of the Viewer window

caused a stall on the system (This was a Windows NT/XP error only).· VEP export of selected region

o During the VEP export, only specifically defined regions can be written to theoutput file

1.22.4 v3.2.0

Enhancements

· PEC Moduleo Fewer figures and faster calculation as a result of tuning of the Long Range

PEC algorithmo Significant performance boost of Short Range PEC by selective processing

(automatic or user defined)o The Short Range PEC interface has been improved, allowing the user to select

the correction accuracy

· Export Moduleo Significant performance enhancement by introducing hierarchical fracturing,

optimized array processing, and algorithmic advanceso Enhancement of Beam Step Size (BSS) fracturing (shot pitch fracturing)

§ The previous implementation of BSS fracturing (mismatched rectangles)left overlaps and that is now compensated for by automatic adjustment ofthe dose

· Heal Moduleo New hierarchical processing that speeds up overlap removal, which shortens

the run times of any subsequent PEC and Export

· Dynamic Memory Managemento New dynamic memory management balances the memory used when there are

multiple modules running, improving both stability and performance

· Flow Managemento Recently saved flows can be reloaded from the file menuo Default settings of each process module can be set by the usero The current flow can be reloaded in case of a crash (recover mode)o Enhanced path management for Import, Export and PSF files

· Viewero Improved, faster viewingo Shot display has been enabled when in multi-view mode

· Prototype functions – for pilot customers and not part of the general releaseo Distributed processingo Shape correction for short and mid-range effects (limited to Manhattan layouts)o Extremely fast simulation at defined cut-lines (limited to Manhattan layouts)

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o Global Optimizer function for fitting parameters, e.g. PSF parameters, toexperimental data

Solved Issues

· FDA dose import - an import with tabs as separators, imported the tabs into thetable as well. This is now fixed.

· Zero width path extraction - during extraction some paths with zero width weren'textracted. This is fixed now.

· DXF import with layer names containing blanks - when a DXF file contained layernames with blanks, the layer wasn't imported. This is now fixed.

· Self-overlapping polygons during Heal acted like an XOR - the healing of self-overlapping polygons has been fixed to resolve the XOR behavior.

· Incorrect fit of PSF with very fine resolution - a PSF with a very fine resolution(1nm grid) triggered an incorrect fit result. This is fixed now.

· VEP Export now has the correct number of fields in the header. Also a VRU checkhas been implemented to ensure proper inputs.

Open Issues

· GRID smoothing – It has been observed that GRID smoothing can cause a re-snapof polygon points to nearby grid points.

· BIAS on zero width paths – in case of a bias, zero width paths are not affected.

Modifications

· The EXPORT module for the Jeol 51 format has a new default for the single linedose classes being set to 0 now.

· The Multiview now opens with the coordinate system reference set to ‘Center ofLayout’ making comparative views easier.



1.23 v3.1

1.23.1 v3.1.7

Fixed Issues

· A bug has been fixed in the PEC module that placed under special conditionscorrected elements on a different grid and by this introduced a possibility thatsubsequent process steps could interpret these coordinates incorrectly. In the caseof EXPORT it could happen that individual elements of the PEC were lost duringexport.

· A bug has been fixed that displaced the extent and the content of the layout duringviewing with the Layout VIEWER.

1.23.2 v3.1.6

Fixed Issues

· A pattern integrity issue was fixed for the binary output formats Vistec EBPG,Vistec VB and JEOL. The error showed up only when fracturing complex polygonswhere multiple vertices are at the same point, e.g. a polygon with holes in it. Undersome circumstances the fractured result had missing shapes.

· A bug in the bias module has been fixed. The error can occur if the layout iscurved, concave and the bias value is large compared to the length of a polygonside, so that the number of vertices of the resulting polygon is smaller than thenumber of vertices of the initial polygon.

1.23.3 v3.1.5

Fixed Issues

· GDSII, LETXT, CIF and DXF inputs which have cell references that use twotransformations magnification and rotation in conjunction lead to a crash duringprocessing.

· DXF inputs where the cell definitions contain different origins were not positionedcorrectly

1.23.4 v3.1.4

Improvements

· Acceleration of the Linux version (a 3x was observed for non-Manhattan 1.5GBlayout)

· Acceleration of BIAS operation (up to 10x for larger layouts)

Fixed Issues

· Viewing a layout, while running a process step on the subsequent module may havelead to a crash. This is now resolved.

1.23.5 v3.1.3

Solved Issues

· When Import-ing large CIF and DXF files (>2GB) user parameters such as UNITSwere dropped. This has been fixed.

· The MINUS operation introduced during processing overlaps. This has been fixed.

185Release Version


· During the MINUS occasional processing tiles were lost. This has been fixed.

Improvements

· The Import step now behaves differently: in addition to scanning the layout for itscontent, an LEDB file (our internal file format) is automatically created. Althoughthis results in longer import times, a large layout can be viewed (full view, zoom,pan) much faster then the spatially unsorted layout.

· Export of machine output formats works much faster on large layouts.

Known Issues

· Viewing a layout, while running a process step on the subsequent module leads to acrash.

1.23.6 v3.1.2

Solved Issues

· Memory management had underestimated the amount of memory needed for largefiles that contained mostly polygons with very few vertices. As a result, processingran out of memory, resulting in an error message that memory allocation had failed.

· Layouts with layer strings (such as DXF or CIF) had an error during the Extractoperation. The layer string was dropped and subsequent processing steps failed.

· JEOL and VEP Beam Step Size fracturing dropped some special trapezoids whenthe Beam Step Size was larger than 1.

· Export for JEOL 6300SA and 6300FS/Z treated the single lines dose assignmentincorrectly. This is now corrected, and correctly limits assignment to 16 doseclasses.

· During FDA imported dose classes were dropped and only the newly set doseclasses were assigned. Now the imported dose classes are maintained while thespecified dose classes overwrite.

Improvements

· Loading of input files that contain lots of path-like elements consisting of 2 verticesis much faster now. This impacts GDSII import (Path element), DXF import (lineand polyline elements), TXL import (Path element), and CIF import (Wirecommand).

· A progress bar for DXF import and CIF import is now available.

· JEOL 9300FS is now enabled to write single lines by converting them to trapezoidswith a width/base of 0.

Known Issues




1.23.7 v3.1.1

Solved Issues

· Chariot files version 2.8.6 are supported now

Known Issues


1.23.8 v3.1.0

Enhancements

· With the key combination Ctrl + A all modules can be selected.

· The Extract module has been remodeled, and now allows direct input of regionsfor extraction in a simple dialog. Also the Extract Extent dialog has beenimproved, adding an additional option to define customized extents.

· The E-Beam module now supports the usage of a metrology layer to specify theregion that is to be simulated for the resist profile.

· To simulate specific parts of a layout with the E-Beam module, region layers canbe defined which are then used to simulate the energy distribution.

· The Boolean operations now have the option to send their output to a target layer.

· The drawing of layouts has been enhanced to allow faster updates, and the rules forpixel averaging have been improved to give more detail to a displayed layout.

· A Soft Frame option, to avoid cuts of small layout elements during Booleanoperations, has been added to the parameter dialog box. It controls the creation oftiles that define areas for processing.

Solved Issues

· The units of a PSF file are checked and translated for proper internal usage.

· A consistency check has been added to the PSF file import, to avoid erroneous PSF

data.

· The readability of UTF based fonts has been enhanced for some dialogs.

· The Back button for module navigation has been removed to avoid duplicate

buttons. The Up button remains.

· The Bias module’s reporting of the parameters layer and datatype has been fixed

· The licensing error message now reads "Cannot get license of Import formatter".

· The Import of a GDS2 file with doses assigned to layers had a problem. The dose

values are read correctly now.

187Release Version


· In the Extract module if you extract a cell, the Extent is disabled. In previous

versions it was enabled but ignored during operation. This has been fixed to display

correctly.

· The Export of a JEOL file now shows this field label: "Shot Pitch [Pattern Units]"

· The Loop module with PEC and Export to JEOL had a bug in the naming of the

JDI file. This has been fixed.

· Chariot version 2.8.6 files are supported now. (v3.1.1)

Open Issues

· You may get an error message from version 3.0.x after starting and using version3.1.0. If the newer version writes files into the user library, the old version is notable to load these files. This should result in an error message for the specific flow,but the application is able to run after clicking OK in the error message box.Layout BEAMER has some new commands, and older versions are not alwaysable to read these files.

· Viewing a layout, while running a process step on a subsequent module leads to acrash.



1.24 v3.0

1.24.1 v3.0.9

Solved Issues

· GPF Fracture with COMPACTION OFF

o During fracture (Export) to a GPF format file, with COMPACTION turned off,certain arrayed elements were dropped from the final file; this has now beenfixed.

1.24.2 v3.0.8

Enhancements

· Short Range PEC Quality Enhancements:

o Reducing dose oscillations and asymmetrical dose assignments.

· Speed for beta (β) Fracturing:

o Faster fracturing due to orientation at dose values and not dose classes. Showssignificant impact (reduction of unneeded cuts) for beta correction. Speedenhancements up to 4X.

Solved Issues

· DXF file import errors

o For a few special DXF files a crash was observed, this has now been resolved

o During import of DXF it could happen that a layout element wasn’t properlyimported; this has now been fixed.

1.24.3 v3.0.7

Solved Issues

· Illegal structures for EXPORT

o The JEOL export had produced illegal structures, which has now been fixed.

1.24.4 v3.0.6

Enhancements

· Grey tone bitmap

o It is now possible to create via an API command a grey tone bitmap

Solved Issues

· Fixing of file handles

o For the import it was observed that the file handles were not properly closed.This has now been fixed

· GPF Formatter

189Release Version


o Modification of Resolution and Field Size settings

o Corrected GPF field centering according to specification

1.24.5 v3.0.5

Solved Issues

· Compatibility to Red Hat v3 and v5

o This version has experienced some modifications to enhance the compatibilitywith the Red Hat Linux version 3 and 5

· Improvements on the GPF Formatter

o Bottom clipping optimizes towards Y traps

o Correction of the Field View positions now properly for diverging Extent

o Loss of figures has been fixed by using improved top clipping on small featuredlayout elements

o Fracture time and export file name are now written into the log file.

1.24.6 v3.0.4

Solved Issues

· Loss of elements during export

o For some hierarchical layouts, the Export module dropped some elements, andthis is now corrected.

· E-beam simulation was not executed properly

o For one specific pattern, it was observed that the e-beam simulation was notdone properly. Now the layout is properly read and simulated.

· PEC produces slightly non-symmetric results for symmetric layouts

o For a symmetric layout, it was observed that the layout wasn’t properlyassigned dose classes, so that layout elements slipped into a neighboring doseclass. This is now corrected.

1.24.7 v3.0.3

Solved Issues

· Export of GPF files

o For the export of GPF files it happens on distinct layouts that the file wasempty, which has now been resolved

· Import of GDS

o For layout structures where layout elements had a length of the resolve grid itcould happen that polygon points were lost. This has been corrected.



1.24.8 v3.0.2

Solved Issues

· Extraction error for DXF files

o The extraction of layers wasn't properly functioning for the DXF format the bughas been fixed now.

· Crash during viewing of layouts

o In some cases it could happen that the software crashed during layout viewingand a resizing of the window which is now resolved.

· New sample files available

o The sample folder has been enriched with some PSF for standard cases

o The directory structure was rearranged to fir the new samples better so thatnow a subfolder exists for layouts and PSF

1.24.9 v3.0.1

Solved Issues

· Crash with short range PEC

o During a single case of PEC an arrayed layout caused a crash of the softwarewhich has been now been fixed.

· Incorrect fracturing in the Manhattan mode

o For a case of fracturing, when the grid was significantly larger than thedatabase grid, the results were not correct which has now been resolved.

1.24.10 v3.0.0

Enhancements

· JEOL Shot Display

o Actual shot display is now available in the E-Beam module (simulation ofactual JEOL machine shot placement) and the Layout VIEWER (visualizationof real JEOL machine shot placement fractured to JEOL files).

· PEC - Manhattan mode with Minimum Figure Size

o A new PEC setting is available for creating only vertical and horizontal cutswith a defined minimum feature size. Depending on the layout this results inmuch faster calculation times for PEC and fracturing to the machine format.Additionally, you get smaller file sizes, shorter machine writing time and lessoverlaps / gaps in the fractured layout. This mode is set as default.

o Optionally, there is a “Curved” mode (the correction mode of earlier versions)available that can be used if curved shapes are desired (like optical structures)resulting in perfectly symmetrical curved isodose lines. With the Curved modeenabled, you can optionally choose between applying it to “all angles” or“limited angles”, and the isodose grid size is user definable.

· PEC – Short range

191Release Version


o The short range PEC has been improved in speed and accuracy for correctingline end shortenings and corner rounding at a line’s end.

· E-Beam

o The E-Beam module now has two modes under the Result Settings tab. Thenewly added Full Layout Contour option allows the processing of entire layoutswith a resulting threshold border (diffusion length and resist type are userdefinable parameters) based on energy distribution. The results are the contours(equivalent to resist contours) shown as polygons. They can be saved andprocessed like any layout. This mode enables you to run simulations withinloops, user flows and other automated runs. The Interactive Intensity Imagemode behaves like in previous releases where you need to open Layout Viewerand zoom-in to the area of interest small enough to start simulation.

· Formatter

o The GPF formatter is now creating arrays of non-orthogonal repeatedtrapezoids. This option is useful for layouts with angled lines and curvedstructures (optical wave-guides). It will reduce GPF file size and writing timewith vector repletion of trapezoids.

· Batch

o Newly added automation capability that uses the command line for theexecution of saved text files (Layout BEAMER flow description files, FTXT)without the need to open the graphical user interface (GUI).

· Export

o Results from the Export module can now be viewed directly from the Exportmodule’s option menu.

o The Export file name is automatically set to the file name used in the Importmodule.

· Execute Script

o Commands can be triggered from the OS (Windows or Linux) with this moduleallowing scripts to be executed. The script may start other applications inparallel or sequential. The Script module may be at any position within theflow. One example application would be to start a Script after Export, checkthe log file, estimate writing time, send the file by ftp to another destination andthen start writing.

· Grid

o This module allows you to change the layout grid for additional processing. Thisfunction is needed to prepare the layout for the final writing grid of the e-beammachine. Also when merging two layouts, you may need to make adjustmentsfor a common grid.

Note: The grid snap functionality is currently limited to layouts containingaxis parallel rotations without magnifications (most layouts adhere to this).In other words, hierarchical layouts containing a non-axis parallel rotationor a magnification will create an error message during the grid snapoperation. This limitation will be removed shortly.

· Layout VIEWER



o A frame is now drawn around the layout before it is drawn, allowing for easiernavigation when viewing the layout.

o The 'Draw Mode Marked' under the View menu’s View Parameters settingsoption triggers the drawing of a marker for all existing layout elements. Thiswill allow you to identify elements that are not seen at a specific zoom level

o The 'Show Grid' option under the View menu’s View Parameters settingsprovides an option to draw a grid map over the layout. There are three levels ofgrids and the grid size can be set by the user.

o The 'Edit Field Settings' under the View menu allows the display of the writingfield in the Layout Viewer. The Field Size, Field Overlap and Field Offsetproperties can be set by the user.

· Extract

o It is now possible to extract by using layer names when using DXF files(previously restricted to using layer numbers).

· Changed naming for JEOL dose table file

o The ending of files that are used as Job Deck inputs has been changed from'JDF' to 'JDI' – standing for Job Deck Input. To import cases of a previousversion please rename the JDF file to the extension JDI.

Solved Issues

· DXF layout with corrupted lines

o This has been fixed. Please note that DXF allows only one separate width pervertex, either start or end.

· Missing elements during zoom in Layout VIEWER

o The issue of some elements not being printed under certain circumstances whilezooming has been resolved.

· Crash on several Linux OS

o The issue where a special configuration of the resource file caused a crash on afew Linux OS distributions has been resolved by setting the option to false.

· Importing a dose table in GDSII reclassified dose values

o The issue where some dose tables imported in GDS had their dose classes wererearranged has been resolved and now the dose classes are imported as listed inthe file.

· Clean up of temporary files when an error occurs

o The issue where temporary files were not removed if a crash occurred,potentially causing the disk drive to swamp, has been resolved. Temporary filesare now deleted should a crash occur.

· Multiview pick paths where only one is reported

o The issue where Multiview picks only printed one path has been resolved.

· Mirror of trapezoids for formatters

193Release Version


o The issue where a mirror of trapezoids for formatters was not properly executedand has been resolved.

· User flow visibility when opened

o The issue where user flows were not visible when opened to see the moduleflow has been resolved and the view adjusts to the position of the modules.

· Support of abort during Export

o The Export module can now be interrupted by selecting the abort option

· Extraction region not visible

o The issue where in some cases the extraction region wasn't visible when drawn,has now been resolved.

· The 'tab' character in LTXT / CTXT files caused those files to be unreadable

o The issue where a 'tab' was encountered during the reading of a CTXT file,causing the reading to abort has been resolved

· Layer selection dialog to keep selected layers

· Removal of temporary files after crash

o The temporary files used for storing intermediate information were not removedwhen a software crash occurred. This has now been resolved and those fileswill be removed should the software exit abnormally.



1.25 Opening Formatter Notes in BEAMER

· Open BEAMER and load an Export Module to the working area

· Clicking on Help will then open the appropriate GenISysOnlineHelp document

Index 195


Index

- V -v4.6 108, 109, 111, 112

v4.7 103, 104, 105

v4.8 97