Lossless layout image compression algorithms for electron-beam direct-write lithography

Electron-beam direct-write lithography systems must in the future transmit terabits of information per second to be viable for commercial semiconductor manufacturing. Lossless layout image compression algorithms with high decoding throughputs and modest decoding resources are tools to address the data transfer portion of the throughput problem. The earlier lossless layout image compression algorithm Corner2 is designed for binary layout images on raster-scanning systems. The authors propose variations of Corner2 collectively called Corner2-EPC and Paeth-EPC which apply to electron-beam proximity corrected layout images and offer interesting trade-offs between compression ratios and decoding speeds. Most of our algorithms achieve better overall compression performance than portable network graphics, Block C4, and LineDiffEntropy while having low decoding times and resources. (C) 2015 American Vacuum Society.