A semiconductor layout testing and correction system is disclosed. The system
combines
both rule-based optical proximity correction and model-based optical proximity
correction in order to test and correct semiconductor layouts. In a first embodiment,
a semiconductor layout is first processed by a rule-based optical proximity correction
system and then subsequently processed by a model-based optical proximity correction
system. In another embodiment, the system first processes a semiconductor layout
with a rule-based optical proximity correction system and then selectively processes
difficult features using a model-based optical proximity correction system. In
yet another embodiment, the system selectively processes the various features of
a semiconductor layout using a rule-based optical proximity correction system or
a model-based optical proximity correction system.