Patent ID: 7120882

Claim:
A method of setting at least one of a process parameter and a design rule for use in manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising: compacting a first pattern by using design rule information to obtain a second pattern, the first pattern being one which corresponds to a design layout of the semiconductor integrated circuit; obtaining chip size information of the semiconductor integrated circuit, which relates to the second pattern; obtaining a third pattern by using process parameter information, the third pattern being one which corresponds to the second pattern and which is to be formed on a semiconductor wafer; comparing the third pattern with the second pattern to obtain a comparison result; extracting a dangerous spot from the second pattern by using the comparison result to obtain dangerous spot information, the dangerous spot not having prescribed latitude; determining whether the chip size information and the dangerous spot information satisfy evaluation conditions, respectively; and changing at least one of the design rule information and the process parameter information when at least one of the chip size information and the dangerous spot information is determined not to satisfy the evaluation conditions.