Patent ID: 7765516

Claim:
A method for preparing a mask pattern database for proximity correction, the method comprising: receiving data from a design database; generating mask pattern data describing a first photomask pattern for forming first device features, wherein the first photomask pattern is to be corrected for proximity effects in a proximity correction process and the first device features are gate structures; accessing a second set of data comprising information about second device features, wherein at least a portion of the second set of data is relevant to the proximity correction process and the second device features are biasing layers formed adjacent to the gate structures; manipulating the second set of data so as to improve the proximity correction process, as compared with the same proximity correction process in which the second set of data was included in the mask pattern database without being manipulated; and including at least a portion of the mask pattern data and at least a portion of the manipulated second set of data in the mask pattern database.