The data volume is increasing exponentially in mask data preparation (MDP) flows for sub-45nm technologies, but time to market drives the acceptable total turnaround time. As a reasonable response, more computing resources are purchased to address these two issues. How to effectively use these resources including the latest CPUs, high-speed networking, and the fastest data storage devices is becoming an urgent problem to solve. A detailed study is conducted in an attempt to find an optimal solution to this problem. In particular, how CPU speed, bandwidth of network connections, and I/O speed of data storage devices affect the total turnaround time (TAT) in a mask data preparation flow is researched. For a given High Performance Computing (HPC) budget and MDP flow TAT constraints, methodologies to optimize HPC resources are proposed.

Date Published: 11 May 2009
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 7379, Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XVI, 73792Y (11 May 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.824349

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7379:
Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XVI
Kunihiro Hosono, Editor(s)