Abstract
As the shrinking of the feature size and the delay of the next generation lithography, double patterning lithography (DPL) is no longer enough for 14/10nm technology node. Triple patterning lithography (TPL) is a nature extension from DPL, and it can not only triple the pitch but also reduce conflicts and stitches. Although TPL is more difficult and complicated than DPL, TPL is a promising alternative for 14/10nm technology node. In this paper, we consider TPL during the standard-cell legalization stage in order to let the resultant placement be more friendly to TPL layout decomposition. We provide a novel idea of reducing TPL conflicts through cell reordering and white space insertion. The experimental results show that as compared to a conventional legalizer, our legalizer is able to effectively reduce the numbers of conflicts and stitches.