Patent ID: 8621400

Claim:
A method for judging a systematic defect attributable to a circuit design of a semiconductor device, the method comprising the steps of: sampling a circuit pattern of a specific layer of the semiconductor device, judging, by using design data, a state of superposition of the sampled circuit pattern and a circuit pattern of at least one of layers other than the specific layer, performing classification in accordance with the state of superposition, and calculating a ratio thereof as a reference ratio; judging a state of superposition of a pattern on the design data corresponding to a position of a defect detected by inspecting the specific layer by another inspection device and a pattern of the layer other than the specific layer at a position corresponding to the position of the defect, classifying the judged state of superposition in accordance with the state of superposition, and calculating the classified ratio as an inspection result ratio; comparing the calculated reference ratio with the calculated inspection result ratio; and judging the systematic defect attributable to the circuit design of the semiconductor device based on results of the comparison between the reference ratio and the inspection result ratio.