Mentor.com :: IC Design Resources

White Paper:Can fast Rule-Based Assist Feature Generation in random-logic Contact Layout provide sufficient Process Window?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Semiconductor manufacturing is continuously ramping up the yield of technology processes with transistor dimensions well below the exposure wave length. Light diraction eects limit the resolution of pattern with ever smaller dimension in ArF lithography using a fixed exposure wave length of 193nm and prevent printing wafer patterns identical to the shapes drawn on the exposure mask. Resolution enhancement techniques such as Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) enable new technologies to be realized in wafer manufacturing. Sub-resolution assist features (SRAF), or scatter bars (SB), provide critical process window enhancements in the lithography process. Traditionally, SRAF generation is based on geometric rules, which are extracted from a large amount of simulation and empirical wafer data from printing test masks.

White Paper:High Performance Electrical Driven Hotspot Detection Solution for Full Chip Design using a Novel Device Parameter Matching Technique

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

With the continuous development of today’s technology, IC design becomes a more complex process. The designer now not only takes care of the normal design and layout parameters as usual, but also needs to consider the process variation impact on the design to preserve the same chip functionality with no failure during fabrication. In the current process, schematic designers go through extensive simulations to cover all the possible variations of their design parameters and hence of the design functionality. At the same time, layout designers perform time-consuming process-aware simulations (such as lithography simulations) on the full chip layout, which impacts the design turn-around time. In this paper, we present a fast physical layout and electrical-aware Design-For-Manufacturability (DFM) solution that detects hotspot areas in the full chip design without requiring extensive electrical and process simulations. Novel algorithms are proposed to implement the engines that are used to develop this solution. Our proposed flow is examined on a 45 nm industrial Finite Impulse Response (FIR) full chip. The proposed methodology is able to define a list of electrical hotspot devices located on the FIR critical path that experience up to 17% variation in their DC current values due to the effect of process and design context. The total runtime needed to identify and detect these electrical hotspots on the FIR full chip takes nearly 3 minutes, compared to hours when using conventional electrical and process simulations.

White Paper:Integration of Pattern Matching© into Verification Flows

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

In this work, we introduce the use of pattern matching as a potential solution for many verification flows problems. Pattern matching offers a great TAT advantage since it is a DRC based process, thus it is much faster than time consuming LITHO operations. Also, its capability to match geometries directly and operability on many layers simultaneously eliminates complex SVRF coding from our flows. Firstly, we will use the pattern matching in order not to run OPC verification on basic designs identified by the OPC engineer to be error free, which is a very useful technique especially in Memory designs and improves the run time. Then, it will be used to detect waivers, which is hard to code, while running verification flows and eliminate it from the output, and consequently the reviewer will not be distracted by it and concentrate on real errors. And finally, it will be used to detect hot spots in a separate very quick run before standard LITHO verification run which gives the designer/OPC engineer the opportunity to fix design/OPC issues without waiting for lengthy verification flows, and that in turns further improves TAT.

White Paper:A Hybrid model/pattern based OPC approach for improved consistency and TAT

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

As the technology advances, OPC run time turns to be a big concern and a great deal of our efforts is directed towards speeding up the LITHO operations. In addition, the OPC simulation consistency is sometimes deteriorated which is a critical issue especially for anchor features. On the other hand, full chip designs usually comprise large arrays of basic cells, used by OPC engineers to tune OPC recipes, which is evident for instance for memory design and processor chips. The model based OPC technique is not necessary for such designs provided that the equivalent mask shapes for one cell of these arrays are already known. In this work, we introduce a combined approach using model and pattern based OPC. Pattern matching is used to extract regions from full chips that match the basic designs stored in pre-created libraries. When matching occurs, OPC solution stored in these libraries is used and populated across matched areas. Special treatment for large array boundaries is applied due to proximity effects. Model based OPC is used for the rest of the chip. This approach has two main advantages. First, simulation consistency is greatly improved since the OPC solution for standard cells is priory known. Also, pattern matching is a DRC based tool and thus it is very fast compared to LITHO operations and hence TAT is further enhanced.

White Paper:Automated Yield Enhancements Implementation on full 28nm Chip: Challenges and Statistics

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

This paper shares the details of the Yield Enhancements that were done at 28nm full chip level sharing the complexity involved in implementing such a flow and then the verification challenges involved , e.g., at mask data preparation. We discuss and present the algorithm used to measure the efficiency of the tool, explaining why we used this algorithm while sharing some alternate algorithms possible. We also share the detailed statistics regarding run time, machine resource, data size, polygon counts etc. We also present good techniques used by us for efficient flow management involved in large complex 28nm chips. These results were verified at GlobalFoundries.

White Paper:Smart Double-Cut Via Insertion Flow With Dynamic Design-Rules Compliance For Fast New Technology Adoption

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

As IC technologies shrink and via defects remain the same size, the probability of via defects increases. Redundant via
insertion is an effective method to reduce yield loss related to via failures, but a large number of extremely complex
design rules make efficient automatic via insertion difficult. This paper introduces an automatic redundant via insertion
flow which is capable of adopting new technologies and complex design rules extremely quickly. Runtime and
efficiency are optimized through a smart insertion scheduling technique. Our experiments show that it efficiently
improves redundant via percentage, making designs more robust against via defects.

White Paper:Experience with OVM-Based Mixed-Signal Verification of the Impedance Calibration Block for a DDR Interface

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Microsemi qualified a structured approach to mixed-signal SoC verification using Questa ADMS, systematic pre-planning, and the OVM. The special requirements of interfacing to the mixed-signal DUT are encompassed by a library of driver and monitor extension elements that we call O-SRC and O-PRB. We report on the verification plan, the development effort, the results achieved, and our conclusions regarding the viability of these techniques for future product development at Microsemi.

White Paper:Thickness-aware LFD for the hotspot detection induced by topology

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

A methodology of advanced process window simulations with awareness of chip topology is presented. This method identifies the expected focal range encountered due to different topology in different areas within a design. As a result, respective defocus models are used to drive the LFD simulations and detect CD (Critical Dimension) variations in printing features. By building process models to be implemented, we can attempt to pinpoint process hotspots based on where they would appear on a real wafer. Identified hotspots are then compared to real wafer results, and a practical use of these results is fed to OPC. Finally all hotspots are enhanced by OPC with applied focus shifting instead of design revision.

News Article:Calibre Flow Developed with Mentor Graphics Consulting Boosts GLOBALFOUNDRIES Silicon Yield

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT

WILSONVILLE, Ore., March 8, 2012 - Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced that a new flow developed for GLOBALFOUNDRIES by the Mentor® Consulting Division (MCD) using the Calibre® suite of tools has demonstrated the ability to improve incoming design yield. A silicon experiment performed by GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor resulted in a significant yield increase on a test chip after the integrated flow made automatic design-for-manufacturing (DFM) improvements using multiple Calibre tools for analysis and direct modification to the GDS layout database. The flow, which is available to GLOBALFOUNDRIES customers for 45/40 and 32/28 nm processes, features rapid turnaround time for full-chip designs, maintains design performance specifications, and helps ensure that the results are DRC clean by immediately verifying all changes during the modification process.

Blog Post:TSMC 28nm yield (SemiWiki)

Simon Favre — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:38:01 GMT

I posted the following reply to Daniel Nenni’s article on TSMC 28nm yield: “I agree that design teams need to take more ownership of the yield issue. Unfortunately, yield is such a sensitive topic that people only talk about it when it’s bad! The defect density vs. die size and yield curves above represent the simplest area-based yield model, based on an average across many designs,