Mentor Blogs

My Monday started off well delivering the eqDRC presentation with Jim Culp. But I didn’t have long to enjoy it as I had to quickly head up to the mezzanine level to get ready for my lunch and learn event with ARM and Chartered. We have had a long relationship with both companies and we finally arranged to do a joint presentation on how we have collaborated to make more DFM compliant IP. It started … Read More

Design Quality, Design for Manufacturing, IP, Physical Verification, Yield

I felt privileged this year to get a paper accepted into the technical track at DAC. It seems more and more difficult to get something through. I think they said they only had a 20% acceptance rate this year. I was glad to get to present this one because it was fun doing the experimentation for it and I think it helps answer one of the nagging questions I always get about eqDRC. I worked with Fedor … Read More

IC Verification, IC Design, DAC, Design Quality, Design for Manufacturing, Design Rules, DRC, Physical Verification, Design Rule Checking

Well, day two of DAC started a little earlier than the first day. I had to attend the speakers breakfast for the paper I was going to give later that day. However, after breakfast I had my 9am suite presentation on eqDRC again and I also had a special guest again. This time it was Robert Boone from Freescale in Austin, TX. He works in the DFM team and he also agreed to come tell everyone what he and … Read More

Reliability, IC Verification, Yield, Physical Verification, Design for Manufacturing, DAC, DRC, IC Design, Improvability, Design Rule Checking, Design Rules

Well it felt familiar to be back in San Francisco for DAC this year. However, I wasn’t ready for the cold. It was 100 degrees in Portland when I left and I always assume the Bay area will be warmer. Luckily I looked at the weather map before I finished packing and replaced my short sleeve shirts with long sleeve ones. I didn’t get in until late Sunday night so I only had time for a dinner in the Westin … Read More

IC Verification, IC Design, Yield, Design Quality, Design for Manufacturing, DAC, Design Rules, Leakage, DRC, Physical Verification, Design Rule Checking

In my last post I discussed the reasons and challenges associated with “waivers” for DRC.  As discused, this is becoming a bigger and bigger challenge as designs become more intricate and design rules become more complex.  To the poor design team that has the challenge of integrating IP from multiple sources into a single working design, this can become a nightmare to manage.  Not only is the DRC debug … Read More

Physical Verification, DRC, Calibre, DAC, Waivers

That is the question! If you read my colleague John’s most recent posting “Waive of the future?”, you will understand the question. I was equally shocked as John to find that almost no one tapes out DRC clean anymore. I would add one other reason to John’s list as to why this has happened. I think the traditional DRC rules are broken. Please read my first post “Are Design Rules Broken?” for my stance … Read More

IC Verification, IC Design, Design Quality, Design for Manufacturing, Design Rules, DRC, Physical Verification, Design Rule Checking

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

I admit it.  I’m one of those rare adults who is actually willing to admit that he (or she) is a true fan of professional wrestling; have been since I was a kid in the early 70’s.  Over the entire course of those years, probably the greatest athlete in professional wrestling has been the recently retired  “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.  A multi-time world champ, one of Ric’s most prominent quotes has been … Read More

DRC, LVS, Physical Verification, Ric Flair

What does design for manfuacturing (DFM) mean to you? “More work to do!” “Someone else’s problem!” “Just more design constraints!” “The fab guys are expecting me to understand the process as well as design!” I propose that we define DFM (design for mfg) as an attempt to trasfer a way of doing business that has been tried and tested in the manufacturing space for years, into the design space. The fabs … Read More

Design Quality, Design for Manufacturing, Physical Verification

It is no mystery that the number of design rules has exploded over the past few technology nodes. It’s impossible for any human designer to “remember” them all, much less follow them all. It’s also a problem for the CAD engineer. We extracted some data from a spectrum of DRC decks that our customers have in production and the graph below shows the results. DRC Rule Count and Complexity by Technology … Read More

Design Rule Checking, Design Rules, Physical Verification, DRC