Mentor Blogs

Many, many years ago, when I started in this business, I encountered something that I thought was surprising.  In my very first DRC benchmark, I was struggling with a particular rule.  The customer had given me a 0.25 micron layout, which they had successfully taped out.  My job was to write a rule file in the new tool to measure performance improvement.  My code matched the design rule manual and passed … Read More

IC Design, DRC

One of the fundamental questions everyone asks about DFM is “why should I do it?” On the one hand this always strikes me as a funny question. I always look at DFM in the same way I think of automobile safety. Statistically, most people never get in a serious accident. So why would you spend so much money on airbags, antilock brakes, better seat belts, side door reinforcements, traction control, etc. … Read More

Yield, Design Quality, Design for Manufacturing, IC Verification, Reliability, Physical Verification, IC Design

More and more digital processing functions isolated into multiple power domains, hundreds or thousands of analog-digital interconnections, operating frequencies always closer to pure RF — clearly, genuine full-chip verification of complex mixed-signal systems-on-chip (SoCs) calls for careful planning and organization, as well as flexible simulation technologies. Whether you are verifying a power-management … Read More

Mixed-Signal, IC Design

I got a kick out of Rohan’s comment on my previous blog (How do you define DFM?).  It is too easy to assume that anyone knows what you are talking about when you say DFM.  Just because everyone has been talking about it doesn’t mean any of them know what they are talking about. You could probably infer from my approach to the previous blog that my background is primarily on the manufacturing side. … Read More

Design Quality, Design for Manufacturing, Reliability, Yield, IC Design, IC Verification