International SEMATECH (ISMT) and DuPont Photomasks have combined their intellectual property for producing test photomasks to be used in establishing leading edge technology nodes, under a recently signed cross-licensing agreement,

DuPont Photomasks will become the exclusive merchant photomask manufacturer
of test photomasks based on International SEMATECH's DIRRT (Defect
Inspection Reticle and Repair ReTicle) mask design and DuPont Photomasks'
patent-pending Universal Inspection Standard (UIS).
ISMT and its member companies will have the right to use both the DIRRT and
UIS technologies internally. They may use DIRRT masks with UIS to evaluate
the overall capability of photomask inspection and repair systems, and to
aid in algorithm and process development.
In return for the exclusive right to commercialise the DIRRT design, DuPont
Photomasks has licensed the UIS technology to International SEMATECH and its
member companies. ISMT presently uses DIRRT test masks with UIS to assess
new tools down to the 100nm node.
The deal also includes provisions for the future development and production
of DIRRT test masks with UIS at the 65nm level and beyond.
The DIRRT test mask with UIS evaluates the sensitivity and functionality of
photomask inspection and repair systems. The UIS sensitivity module uses
basic mask patterns at one technology node to gauge a tool's ability to
detect the smallest defect on a photomask.
A new index introduced by DuPont Photomasks, the UIS "Runability Module,"
measures a tool's ability to run universal industry mask patterns at
multiple technology nodes with maximum sensitivity and low false-detection
rates. Among the universal mask patterns on the UIS runability module are
optical proximity correction (OPC) and phase shift mask (PSM) features. In
the past, test masks only had the sensitivity module.