Search

Multiple patterning lithography has been recognized as one of the most promising solutions, in addition to extreme ultraviolet lithography, directed self-assembly, nanoimprint lithography, and electron beam lithography, for advancing the resolution limit of conventional optical lithography. Multiple patterning layout decomposition (MPLD) becomes more challenging as advanced technology introduces complex coloring rules. Existing works model MPLD as a graph coloring problem; nevertheless, when complex coloring rules are considered, layout decomposition can no longer be modeled accurately by graph coloring. Therefore, in this paper, for capturing the essence of layout decomposition with complex coloring rules, we model the MPLD problem as an exact cover problem. We then propose a fast and exact MPLD framework based on augmented dancing links. Our method is flexible and general: it can consider the basic and complex coloring rules simultaneously, can maintain density balancing, and can handle quadruple patterning and beyond. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art works on reported conflicts and stitches and is promising for handling complex coloring rules and density balancing as well.

In this paper a novel optimized graph referencing method is proposed to tackle combinatorial problems with greater ease. The proposed algorithm is a modification of the existing backtracking algorithm. It takes into account the advantage of backtrack algorithm while eliminating its disadvantages. Special care has been taken to reduce the time complexity in avoiding frequent unsuccessful searches and in providing accurate and fast solution to the targeted sub problem. The theoretical analysis and experimental results presented reveal the superiority of proposed algorithm over the conventional algorithms. I. Introduction A special branch of mathematics known as Combinatorics deals with the study of finite structure including counting the structure of a given kind and size, depending upon criteria to be met and analysis and constructs objectives meeting such criteria. Combinatorial problems find extensive application in fields of mathematics, machine learning, AI, Auction Theory, Software Engineering etc. Backtracking is a general algorithm for finding all or some solution to some combinatorial problems. However, Backtracking suffers inherent disadvantages in terms of conjunction of a large processing time and memory space. It is here that the proposed novel optimized graph referencing method established its superiority. The algorithm as proposed by the authors, which is a modification of conventional Backtracking algorithm, not only solves efficiently different combinatorial problems but does so in the least possible time. Tackling various combinatorial problems is a subject of research worldwide. Different efficient algorithms are being developed to this purpose. Xiao et. al. (1) designed a stepwise enumerative algorithm while another algorithm based on GA was developed by Liu et. al. (2). The Backtracking algorithm is reported to be used to solve Sudoku, a combinatorial problem, by Xu (3). The solution to the Sudoku problem was proposed by Zhang (4) who intend to use the application development language AutoLISP embedded in AutoCAD for this purpose. An altogether different algorithm to solve Sudoku was proposed by Zhao et. al. (5) while the same was tackled with the help of cultural algorithm and GA optimization as reported by Mantere and Kolijonen (6

This paper presents a fast algorithm for solving the n-queens problem. The basic idea of this algorithm is to use pre-computed solutions in 75% of the cases, while the remaining cases are solved by calling the Sosic's algorithm. The novelty of this algorithm is in the observation that these pre-computable cases exhibit a modular nature. In addition, the pre-computed solutions run 100 times faster than Sosic's algorithm in most cases.

We discuss weighted deductive parsing and consider the problem of finding the derivation with the lowest weight. We show that Knuth's generalization of Dijkstra's algorithm for the shortest-path problem offers a general method to solve this problem. Our approach is modular in the sense that Knuth's algorithm is formulated independently from the weighted deduction system.

Configuring N mutually nonattacking queens on an N -by- N chessboard is a classical problem that was first posed over a century ago. Over the past few decades, this problem has become important to computer scientists by serving as the standard example of a globally constrained problem which is solvable using backtracking search methods. A related problem, placing the N queens on a toroidal board, has been discussed in detail by Poyla and Chandra. Their work focused on characterizing the solvable cases and finding solutions which arrange the queens in a regular pattern. This paper describes a new divide-and-conquer algorithm that solves both problems and investigates the relationship between them. The connection between the solutions of the two problems illustrates an important, but frequently overlooked, method of algorithm design: detailed combinatorial analysis of an overconstrained variation can reveal solutions to the corresponding original problem. The solution is an example of solving a globally constrained problem using the divide-and-conquer technique, rather than the usual backtracking algorithm. The former is much faster in both sequential and parallel environments.

In this paper we will take a detailed look at a larger example of program analysis by transformation. We will be considering Algorithm 2.3.3.A from Knuth's «Fundamental Algorithms» Knuth (1968) (p. 357) which is an algorithm for the addition of polynomials represented using four-directional links. Knuth (1974) describes this as having «a complicated structure with excessively unrestrained goto statements» and goes on to say «I hope someday to see the algorithm cleaned up without loss of its efficiency». Our aim is to manipulate the program, using semantics-preserving operations, into an equivalent, high-level specification. The transformations are carried out in the WSL language, a «wide spectrum language» which includes both low-level program operations and high level specifications, and which has been specifically designed to be easy to transform