A lithographic (litho) hotspot is a defect on a wafer that is created during manufacturing by a combination of systematic process variation and resolution enhancement technology (RET) limitations.

Pattern matching (PM) was first introduced as the semiconductor industry began to shift from simple one-dimensional rule checks to the two-dimensional checks required by sub-resolution lithography.

Pattern matching is best known for its use in detecting lithographic hotspots, but it’s also widely used across all physical verification flows, and has expanded into design-for-manufacturing (DFM) ...