Patent ID: 7062748

Claim:
A method of correcting rule violations of a photomask using a digital representation of the photomask, comprising: providing data representing a plurality of original design shapes to be included on a photomask; performing corrections on said plurality of original design shapes to generate altered design shapes; identifying violating areas of the photomask from a digital representation of the photomask, the violating areas including at least one area that violates a minimum width rule and at least one area that violates a minimum space rule for said photomask; comparing said altered design shapes to said original design shapes; determining if at least a portion of said violating area lies inside of said original design shape and determining if at least a portion of said violating area lies outside of said original design shape; and manipulating a portion of a violating area that lies inside of said original design shape differently than a portion of a violating area that lies outside of said original design shape, said manipulating performed for the purpose of eliminating the rule violations.