US 12,282,252 B2
Systems, devices, and methods for generating drop patterns
Ahmed M. Hussein, Austin, TX (US); and Andrew Robert Eckert, Pflugerville, TX (US)
Assigned to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo (JP)
Filed by CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Feb. 21, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/172,212.
Prior Publication US 2024/0280896 A1, Aug. 22, 2024
Int. Cl. G03F 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC G03F 7/0002 (2013.01) 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A drop-pattern-generation method that includes determining positions of drops in a transition region between a first uniform-feature segment and a second uniform-feature segment, the method comprising:
calculating a transition region periodicity as a least a common multiple of a first periodicity of a first uniform-feature segment and a second periodicity of a second uniform-feature segment;
determining a plurality of periodic elements of the transition region based on the transition region periodicity;
determining a number of drops for each periodic element of the plurality of periodic elements of the transition region based on a volume requirement of the periodic element; and
selecting, for each periodic element of the plurality of periodic elements of the transition region, a transition-region drop pattern that has the number of drops and that minimizes a metric that is a weighted sum of inverse distances between drops in the periodic element and drops in the first uniform-feature segment and the second uniform-feature segment that are adjacent to the periodic element.