A pattern matching method for quickly estimating the extent to which high-NA and polarization vector effects reduce image quality in projection printing is derived and evaluated for prototypical layout patterns. The angular rotation of the in-incidence plane TM electric field component produces two unwanted effects. It reduces the collinear addition of electric fields at the location of the peak image intensity and, more importantly, it also introduces an electric field component perpendicular to the image plane that acts like stray light. While these imaging effects can be simulated rigorously. the challenge is to quickly screen an entire layout to identify the small subset of regions that must be analyzed more carefully. The approach developed mathematically and evaluated in this paper consists of finding a set of local theoretical patterns having the maximum lateral impact at a reference point. Pattern matching is then used to find areas in a layout that resemble these maximum lateral test functions by scanning them over the entire chip layout. Vulnerability scores, representing linear sensitivity to either high-NA effects or to perturbations of illumination polarization state, are determined for each location from a weighted combination of match factors (the degree of similarity to each pattern). These effects are important as intensity changes of over 40% and 10% can occur with NA and polarization, respectively, even in simple layouts. (c) 2005 American Vacuum Society.