Date: 18/09/2009

Open standards for manufacturing masks used in semiconductor equipment

Chip design software vendor Mentor Graphics and semiconductor equipment vendor Applied Materials have adopted a open data formats called OASIS.MASK (SEMI standard P44) for mask manufacturing. The new OASIS.MASK (SEMI standard P44) format was used in Applied's Aera2 advanced mask inspection systems.

OASIS.MASK (Open Artwork System Interchange Standard for Photomasks) is an open standard interchange format that reduces the size of mask data files by approximately one-half, eliminating the file transfer bottleneck between software tools and mask manufacturing equipment - a key benefit with today's near-terabyte file sizes. The same data file can be used for pattern generation, metrology and inspection, simplifying mask manufacturing process flows by eliminating complex format conversion steps.

"We are working with Mentor Graphics, a leader in the adoption of OASIS standards, to improve efficiency up and down the mask-making value chain by encouraging the adoption of open standards," said Tom St. Dennis, senior vice president and general manager of Applied's Silicon Systems Group. "By incorporating the OASIS.MASK format in our Aera2 systems, we can continue to provide the most competitive, high throughput, die-to-database inspection solutions for our most advanced customers."

"Applied Materials' decision to implement OASIS.MASK in their products shows the value of OASIS mask data format," said Joseph Sawicki, vice president and general manager for the Design-to-Silicon division at Mentor Graphics. "Mentor's experience with OASIS goes back to the development of the original OASIS format (SEMI standard P39), so incorporating our technology into Aera2 was a logical extension of our product efforts. The use of OASIS.MASK for mask manufacturing is fully supported by the Calibre® platform in the Calibre FRACTUREv™, Calibre MDPverify™, and Calibre MDPview™ products, which are all available today."