Fracturing, and the associated options and capabilities, is the heart of the CATS package. This may be the conversion of the polygons in design data (CIF™, Applicon™, DXF™ or GDS-II™) to the rectangles and trapezoids in an E-beam tooling file or inspection database, or it may be the rectangles and rotated rectangles in an optical pattern generator data file. It may also be the refracture of a set of data to perform scaling or sizing operations. In either case, any of the following capabilities will be available. In the following definitions, "library file" refers to a structured design file, while "flat file" refers to an unstructured lithography file.

Format: Specification of the output file format in accordance with the user's output lithography options.

Resolution: Defines the smallest resolvable unit in the output file.

Sizing: Increase or decrease the size of individual rectangles and trapezoids within the input file. Sizing is done in increments of the resolution and is completed before scale and Boolean combination. Asymmetric sizing is supported.

Sizing Rules: Provides four different algorithms that may be used during either Grow or Sizing.

Scaling: Specify any continuous scale factor to be applied to the data during fracture.

Grow: Provides positive or negative data biasing in increments of the resolution after sizing , scale and Boolean operation using specified border rules and sizing rules.

Boolean Functions: OR, AND, XOR, MINUS and COMPARE; allows the combination or comparison of any two input files.

Overlap Removal: Heal and/or combine neighboring or overlapping figures. Reduces figure count and prevents "pull-aparts" during sizing.

Data Compaction: Five unique algorithms are available for generating arrays from either arrayed or non-arrayed input.

Blanking & Filling: Specify areas in the input file to be ignored or filled during fracture.

Prune: Specify library structure(s) to be ignored during fracture. The user may specify the use of only non-pruned data or only pruned data.

Reverse Tone: Allows the data to be reversed during the fracture such that digitized geometries become non-digitized, and non-digitized becomes digitized.

Rotation: Rotate input data in increments of 90-degrees or mirror about increments of 45-degrees.

Select: Provides a variety of methods for selecting data from the input file to be used during graphic drawing and fracture. The rules are based on geometric properties of the individual rectangles and trapezoids within the file.

Stripe Shape: Allows the specification of output data block or stripe height and width in accordance with the rules of the output format.