# LithoDreamer: A Physics-Informed World Model for Multi-Stage Computational Lithography

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26713 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.26713/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Latent predictive world models, one of 11 directions in World models.
- Builds on 11 of its 21 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Jun 2026.

## Placed in

- World models / [Latent predictive world models](https://mlsanity.com/wm/latent-predictive-world-models/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [DINO-WM: World Models on Pre-trained Visual Features enable Zero-shot Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04983/) (2024)
- [Diffusion for World Modeling: Visual Details Matter in Atari](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12399/) (2024)
- [Navigation World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03572/) (2024)
- [DriveDreamer-2: LLM-Enhanced World Models for Diverse Driving Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06845/) (2024)
- [Variational Autoencoder for Deep Learning of Images, Labels and Captions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.08976/) (2016)
- [LaDi-WM: A Latent Diffusion-based World Model for Predictive Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.11528/) (2025)
- [FabGPT: An Efficient Large Multimodal Model for Complex Wafer Defect Knowledge Queries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10810/) (2024)
- [From IC Layout to Die Photo: A CNN-Based Data-Driven Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.04967/) (2020)
- [Intelligent OPC Engineer Assistant for Semiconductor Manufacturing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.12775/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

As semiconductor technology nodes scale, computational lithography is essential for ensuring yield and performance. However, lithography is a continuous physical process involving mask optimization, optical imaging, resist exposure, and development, which existing models fail to capture. To overcome this limitation, we present LithoDreamer, the first physics-informed World Model (WM) framework for computational lithography, which formulates the ``Layout-Mask-Resist Image-After Development Image (ADI)'' pipeline as a decision-driven multi-step evolution system. LithoDreamer captures feature changes between adjacent states to model stage-specific physics-informed latent spaces, in which it controls process intervention exploration and drives subsequent state transitions. To achieve interpretable intervention optimization without continuous supervision, we propose a contrastive variational optimization paradigm that contrasts the latent differences between intervention paths with variational evolution constraints, guiding the model to generate evolutions consistent with real lithography physics. Experiments show LithoDreamer achieves state-of-the-art performance in forward evolution and inverse planning. Our lithography dataset is publicly available at GitHub (https://github.com/7jiangyq/lithodreamer.git).