Patent ID: 8004315

Claim:
A method for making an integrated circuit having geometric features corresponding to at least active, poly, contact, m1, m2 and via layer patterning, said method comprising at least: providing a silicon wafer to a fabrication line capable of rendering geometric features in said wafer at a resolution of 28 nm or less; fabricating, using said fabrication line, the geometric features corresponding to said active, poly, contact, m1, m2 and via layer patterning; wherein said fabricating includes creating, within a continuous region of at least 100×100 um 2 , geometric features in the active, poly, m1, and m2 layers exclusively from patterning having been defined by: instantiating at least 100 abutting instances of a predefined base template at a spacing corresponding to a minimum poly-to-poly pitch for the fabrication line, wherein said base template defines patterning corresponding to the active, poly, contact, m1, m2 and via layers of said integrated circuit; instantiating one or more regular connector templates within a majority of the instantiated base templates, each regular connector template selected from a set of fewer than 20 types of regular connector templates, wherein each type of regular connector template defines patterning corresponding to the active, poly, contact, m1, m2 or via layer of said integrated circuit, and wherein each type of regular connector template is eligible for instantiation at between one and 5 locations relative to a reference location in its associated base template; and, instantiating one or more special connector templates within fewer than 5 percent of the instantiated base templates, each special connector template selected from a set of fewer than 3 types of special connector templates, wherein each type of special connector template defines patterning corresponding to the contact, m1, m2 or via layer of said integrated circuit, and wherein each type of special connector template is eligible for instantiation at a single location relative to a reference location in its associated base template.