Design for manufacturing validation tool : Fast and reliable conversion of SEM images to GDS images

The ability to convert high resolution images from a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) of a printed lithographic pattern to a GDS image file which can be input into modeling software (such as litho-simulation, etc.) for rigorous analysis is a powerful tool. Its use can be expanded through the simplication of the SEM2GDS conversion procedure by automation of the tasks. In this paper, we describe our SEM2GDS and SCAN INTERFACE UNIT, which automates both SEM image collection and SEM2GDS conversion.