This year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography is loaded with interesting keynotes and sessions. To help me narrow down what to see, I spoke with John Sturtevant. John is co-chair of the Design for Manufacturability through Design-Process Integration conference, and the director for technical marketing for RET products at Mentor Graphics.… Read More
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The Future of Lithography Process Models
Always in motion is the future. ~Yoda
For nearly ten years now, full-chip simulation engines have successfully used process models to perform OPC in production. New full-chip models were regularly introduced as patterning processes evolved to span immersion exposure, bilayer resists, phase shift masking, pixelated illumination… Read More
Managing Test Power for ICs
The goal for automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) is to achieve maximum coverage with the fewest test patterns. This conflicts with the goals of managing power because during test, the IC is often operated beyond its normal functional modes to get the highest quality test results. When switching activity exceeds a device’s… Read More
Mask and Optical Models–Evolution of Lithography Process Models, Part IV
Will Rogers said that an economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anyone’s, but with advanced-node optical lithography, I might have to disagree. Unlike the fickle economy, the distorting effects of the mask and lithographic system are ruled by physics, and so can be modeled.
In this installment, I’ll talk about two critical… Read More
Testing, testing… 3D ICs
3D ICs complicate silicon testing, but solutions exist now to many of the key challenges. – by Stephen Pateras
The next phase of semiconductor designs will see the adoption of 3D IC packages, vertical stacks of multiple bare die connected directly though the silicon. Through-silicon vias (TSV) result in shorter and thinner… Read More
OPC Model Accuracy and Predictability – Evolution of Lithography Process Models, Part III
Wyatt Earp probably wasn’t thinking of OPC when he said, “Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything,” but I’ll adopt that motto for this discussion of full-chip OPC and post-OPC verification models.
Accuracy is the difference between the calibrated model prediction and the calibration wafer result. Accuracy depends on several… Read More
Can Your Router Handle 28 nm?
With the adoption of the 32/28 nm process node, some significant new challenges in digital routing arise—including complex design rule checking (DRC) and design for manufacturing (DFM) rules, increasing rule counts, very large (1 billion transistor) designs. To meet quality, time-to-market, and cost targets, design teams… Read More
Dawn at the OASIS, Dusk for GDSII
For an industry committed to constant innovation, changes in any part of the design flow are only slowly adopted, and only when absolutely necessary. Almost 10 years ago, it became clear that shrinking process technologies would bring a massive growth of layout and mask data—rougly 50% per node. This avalanche of data seriously… Read More
Evolution of Lithography Process Models, Part II
In part I of this series, we looked at the history of lithography process models, starting in 1976. Some technologies born in that era, like the Concorde and the space shuttle, came to the end of their roads. Others did indeed grow and develop, such as the technologies for mobile computing and home entertainment. And lithography … Read More








CEO Interview with Jerome Paye of TAU Systems