Patent ID: 7934189

Claim:
A method of making an integrated circuit including simplifying metal shapes, the method comprising: receiving, with a processor, an initial wire layout for at least one metal layer of an integrated circuit, the initial wire layout for the at least one layer including a plurality of wires running in a preferred direction and a plurality of vias connected thereto; segmenting, with the processor, each of the wires into a plurality of bricks according to a set of equally spaced parallel grid lines extending in direction which is perpendicular to the preferred direction such that each wire comprises a series of consecutive bricks with brick boundaries between consecutive bricks occurring at a grid line; defining, with the processor, each brick as a regular or a complex brick based on at least one brick criteria; and defining, with the processor, brick groups such that each group contains one or more consecutive bricks of a same wire and each brick belongs to only one group so that each wire comprises a series of one or more consecutive groups, wherein groups containing at least one complex brick are defined as complex groups.