Status of curvilinear data format working group

For the era of multi-beam mask writer, in the 2019 BACUS conference, we proposed the formation of a data format working group to address the need for curvilinear data representation. The new working group was formed in October 2019 driven by major semiconductor companies with representations from Mentor, Synopsys, Nippon Control Systems, D2S, Aselta, and ASML-BRION with the initial goals to quantify the curvilinear data volume problem; develop, test and implement new or revised formats based on OASIS; and to formalize the working group as a SEMI task force (TF). In this paper, the necessity of a new curvilinear data format and the progress of our TF will be introduced. Furthermore, we demonstrate that given the nature of curvilinear data, representing it using native curve formats has significant value to reduce file size for future mask making flows.