Pattern division method, pattern division processing apparatus and information storage medium on which is stored a program

摘要

There is provided a pattern division method to form crowded patterns accurately on a substrate includes acquiring a mask pattern, dividing a predetermine area into a plurality of areas to prepare a division pattern in which the plurality of the areas are classified into first and second groups, generating a reduced mask pattern by reducing each of two or more patterns laid out in the object mask pattern substantially toward the center of the particular pattern, overlapping the division pattern with the reduced mask pattern and extracting the reduced patterns overlapped with the area classified as the first group of the division pattern to generate a first reduced mask pattern, and restoring the reduced patterns laid out in the first reduced mask pattern to the original size before generation of the reduced mask pattern.