Patent ID: 7281222

Claim:
A method of automatically optimizing an optical proximity correction (OPC) rule set, said method comprising: (a) providing an initial OPC rule set; (b) applying the initial OPC rule set to an initial layout data set to generate a corrected layout data set; (c) simulating how structures represented by the corrected layout data set will pattern on a wafer; (d) determining whether residual edge placement errors are present within structures represented by the corrected layout data set; (e) for each residual edge placement error, recording a plurality of geometric properties of (i) the structure for which the edge placement error is determined and (ii) at least one structure adjacent the structure for which the edge placement error is calculated; (f) sorting the residual edge placement errors based on the recorded geometric properties; and (g) if residual edge placement errors are present within the corrected layout data set, creating a modified OPC rule set to correct the residual edge placement errors.