METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING A PROBLEM EDGE IN A MASK LAYOUT USING AN EDGE-DETECTING PROCESS-SENSITIVITY MODEL

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that identifies a problem edge in a mask layout which is likely to have manufacturing problems. During operation, the system creates an on-target process model that models a semiconductor manufacturing process under nominal process conditions. The system also creates one or more off-target process models that model the semiconductor manufacturing process under one or more process conditions that are different from nominal process conditions. Next, the system computes a process-sensitivity model using the on-target process model and the off-target process models. The system then computes an edge-detecting process-sensitivity model by convolving the process-sensitivity model with an edge-detecting function which can be used to detect edges in an image. Next, the system identifies a problem edge in the mask layout using the edge-detecting process-sensitivity model.