Patent Document ID: 20100128966
Application ID: 12562173
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A pattern shape evaluation method for deciding whether a pair of patterns are disconnected or connected, comprising: setting a measurement region in a predetermined region for an image data containing two patterns disconnected from each other or continuous one pattern; extracting a plurality of pattern contour points that make up a contour of the disconnected two patterns or the continuous one pattern in the measurement region; creating two pattern contour point sequences each of which is a set of the pattern contour points, and in the pattern contour point sequence, each of distances between neighboring ones of the pattern contour points is a predetermined value or less, based on the plurality of pattern contour points; calculating an angle between a line passing through two of the pattern contour points which provide a shortest distance between the two pattern contour point sequences and a reference line arbitrarily defined with respect to the measurement region; and deciding whether the pair of patterns are disconnected or connected, based on the angle.