Patent ID: 8656320

Claim:
A method for creating a photolithography mask from a set of initial mask cells arranged to form an initial mask, the set comprising at least one first initial mask cell and at least one second initial mask cell having at least one mask element in common within an initial region of the initial mask, the method comprising: forming a first modified mask cell by at least performing a first optical proximity correction (OPC) processing operation on the at least one first initial mask cell; forming a second modified mask cell by at least performing a second OPC processing operation on the at least one second initial mask cell; comparing, using a computer system, a position of the at least one mask element in common between the first modified mask cell and the second modified mask cell; and if a result of the comparing is greater than a threshold value, forming a new mask region by at least performing a third OPC processing operation on the initial region, and forming the photolithography mask from at least the new mask region.