Mentor Blogs

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