US Patent 10539881 Generation of hotspot-containing physical design layout patterns

A method for generating physical design layout patterns includes selecting as training data a set of physical design layout patterns of patterned structures. The method also includes training, utilizing physical design layout patterns containing hotspots, a first neural network model configured to generate synthetic physical design layout patterns, and training, utilizing physical design layout patterns that do and do not contain hotspots, a second neural network model configured to classify whether physical design layout patterns contain hotspots. The method further includes generating synthetic physical design layout patterns containing hotspots by utilizing the trained first neural network model to generate synthetic physical design layout patterns and utilizing the trained second neural network model to select the synthetic physical design layout patterns containing hotspots. The method further includes evaluating manufacturability of a given patterned structure comprising at least one of the synthetic physical design layout patterns containing at least one hotspot.