Patent ID: 7065690

Claim:
A fault detecting method for a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising: providing a fault list comprising (a) information identifying physical sites on a physical layout of a semiconductor integrated circuit where a possible fault is likely to occur, and (b) information required to reduce faults; detecting faults in accordance with said fault list in a semiconductor integrated circuit to which said fault list corresponds; calculating a density of a mask pattern corresponding to mask information obtained from a layout device for laying out the semiconductor integrated circuit to which said fault list corresponds; calculating a likelihood of occurrence for each possible fault depending on the density of the mask pattern; weighting the arranged possible faults according to said calculated likelihoods of occurrence; arranging the possible faults in the fault list in order according to their likelihood of occurrence to create an ordered fault list; and detecting faults in said semiconductor integrated circuit by using the ordered fault list, wherein the fault list comprises data about a likelihood of a fault occurring at a physical site.