mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

VPEvolve: A Self-Evolving Virtual Process Engineer for Computational Lithography

arXiv 2609.32473 ↗First posted 26 Sep 2026cs.AI cs.SEcited by 0

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Abstract (arXiv)

Optical proximity correction (OPC) recipes grow as engineers add local rules to repair newly discovered lithography hotspots. Each correction can interact with existing rules, while lessons from commercial-tool trials remain scattered across code and logs. system combines a Virtual Process Engineer (VPE) harness with a Skill Bank of measured engineering experience. The harness equips a frozen language model with process manuals, layout analysis, recipe editing, and commercial-tool evaluation. The actor proposes changes to the global parameters, local targeted rules, or diagnostic trials. After each evaluation, an LLM reflector and curator turn the measured response into evidence-linked judgments. The actor retrieves them before its next trial. Feasible improvements update the retained recipe; every measured trial informs the Skill Bank that guides the next edit. The model weights remain fixed. On a FreePDK45-derived benchmark with ten commercial-tool evaluations per case, system reduces the mean per-case maximum edge placement error from 18.294 to 5.361 nm on Poly and from 22.052 to 15.692 nm on Metal1. Every final recipe satisfies the predefined quality constraints and improves the maximum error by at least 0.1 nm.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 19 of its 32 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 26 Sep 2026.

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19 of 32 references.

References · 19

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
  2. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
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7 more
  1. 2023ChatEDA: A Large Language Model Powered Autonomous Agent for EDAcited by 122
  2. 2026DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash: Pushing the Limits of KV Cache Compressioncited by 76
  3. 2024Large Language Model Agent for Hyper-Parameter Optimizationcited by 64
  4. 2020DAMO: Deep Agile Mask Optimization for Full Chip Scalecited by 24
  5. 2024ILILT: Implicit Learning of Inverse Lithography Technologiescited by 7
  6. 2026SciNav: A General Agent Framework for Scientific Coding Taskscited by 3
  7. 2024Intelligent OPC Engineer Assistant for Semiconductor Manufacturingcited by 2

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  4. 2026Failure-Aware Refinement of Vision-Language Model for Lithography Defect Detection
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