Patent ID: 9514266
Filing Date: 2016-12-06
CPC Classification: G03F,G06F

Claim Text:
1. A method of determining colorability of a layout, the method comprising: generating a conflict diagram based on circuit information, wherein the conflict diagram includes a plurality of nodes, each node of the plurality of nodes is connected to at least another node of the plurality of nodes by a link, each node of the plurality of nodes has a degree equal to a number of links connected to the node, and the plurality of nodes includes at least one anchor node having a pre-defined color; setting a degree of each anchor node of the plurality of nodes within the conflict diagram to a value of n, where n is equal to a number of masks usable to manufacture the layout; excluding, using a processor, nodes having a degree less than n from the conflict diagram; performing a color status check on the conflict diagram after the excluding; and determining whether the layout is colorable based on the performed color status check.