Patent ID: 7042079

Claim:
An integrated circuit, at least a portion of the integrated circuit formed according to a fabrication method comprising the steps of: assigning one or more interconnect lines associated with the integrated circuit which are non-horizontal and non-vertical to at least one metal mask layer separate from at least another metal mask layer assigned to at least one of horizontal interconnect lines and vertical interconnect lines; rotating each of the one or more non-horizontal/non-vertical interconnect lines from an original orientation by a predetermined angle determined by the original line orientation so that the one or more non-horizontal/non-vertical interconnect lines are at least one of horizontally and vertically oriented; printing the one or more rotated non-horizontal/non-vertical interconnect lines on the at least one metal mask layer assigned thereto; rotating the at least one printed metal mask layer so that each of the one or more non-horizontal/non-vertical interconnect lines is returned to its original orientation; and using the rotated metal mask layer to expose a corresponding metal layer of the integrated circuit.