Patent ID: 8707231

Claim:
A method implemented by a semiconductor device design system, the method comprising: generating, from a schematic description of a semiconductor device, a first set of data comprising descriptions of device elements and connectivity of the semiconductor device; generating a set of integrated circuit (IC) masks for the semiconductor device; identifying characteristics of mask device elements described by the set of IC masks; generating, from the determined mask device elements and the IC masks, a second set of data comprising descriptions of the identified IC mask device elements and connectivity of the semiconductor device; comparing each device element in the first set of data with a corresponding IC mask device element in the second set of data, wherein said comparing comprises reading information associated with a device element in the first set of data, wherein the information associated with the device element in the first set of data comprises a location of the device element and an identifier of the type of device element, identifying physical mask layers associated with the type of device element, wherein the physical mask layers correspond to expected mask layers for the type of device element, reading information associated with the corresponding IC mask device element from the second set of data, wherein the corresponding IC mask device element is at a maskset location corresponding to the location of the device element in the first set of data, and the information associated with the corresponding IC mask device element comprises descriptions of mask layers at the maskset location, and comparing the descriptions of the IC mask device element mask layers with the identified physical mask layers; recording differences, if any, between a device element in the first set of data and the corresponding IC mask device element in the second set of data, as a result of said comparing; generating a set of modified IC masks using the recorded differences; and fabricating the semiconductor device using set of modified IC masks.