METHOD OF OPTIMIZING DIE SIZE, PATTERN DESIGNING METHOD, DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To further improve the productivity of a lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing processes.SOLUTION: A method of optimizing a die size in a method of manufacturing devices using a lithographic apparatus, wherein the lithographic apparatus is arranged to expose an image field of variable size in a single exposure step, the image field having a certain maximum size, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a desired area for the die; and calculating a target aspect ratio for the die, wherein the target aspect ratio is determined so as to maximize the number of good dies that can be imaged per hour using the lithographic apparatus. Desirably, the step of calculating the target aspect ratio comprises finding a first target aspect ratio that maximizes a figure of merit MF, where MF is the ratio of the number of dies exposed in each image field divided by the number of exposures on each substrate.