Path Planning of Pattern Transfer Based on Dual-Operator and a Dual-Population Ant Colony Algorithm for Digital Mask Projection Lithography

In the process of digital micromirror device (DMD) digital mask projection lithography, the lithography efficiency will be enhanced greatly by path planning of pattern transfer. This paper proposes a new dual operator and dual population ant colony (DODPACO) algorithm. Firstly, load operators and feedback operators are used to update the local and global pheromones in the white ant colony, and the feedback operator is used in the yellow ant colony. The concept of information entropy is used to regulate the number of yellow and white ant colonies adaptively. Secondly, take eight groups of large-scale data in TSPLIB as examples to compare with two classical ACO and six improved ACO algorithms; the results show that the DODPACO algorithm is superior in solving large-scale events in terms of solution quality and convergence speed. Thirdly, take PCB production as an example to verify the time saved after path planning; the DODPACO algorithm is used for path planning, which saves 34.3% of time compared with no path planning, and is about 1% shorter than the suboptimal algorithm. The DODPACO algorithm is applicable to the path planning of pattern transfer in DMD digital mask projection lithography and other digital mask lithography.