CMP (Chemical Mechanical Planarization or also known as Chemical Mechanical Polishing) is a wafer fabrication step applied generally after a chemical deposition –intended to smoothen and to flatten (planarize) wafer surfaces with the combination of chemical and mechanical forces. Developed at IBM and since its introduction… Read More
Higher level synthesis (HLS) of an IP block involves taking its high-level design specification –usually captured in SystemC or C++, synthesizes and generates its RTL equivalent. HLS provides a faster convergence path to design code stability, promotes design reuse and lowers front-end design inception cost.
HLS and Mentor… Read More
In a recent whitepaper Gagandeep Singh, Director of Engineering at Mentor, a Siemens Business outlines a flow using Catapult Design Checker that helps in early detection of coding errors as many companies are turning to High-Level Synthesis (HLS) methodology. This requires that high -level C++ models are correct, that ambiguities… Read More
Mixed signal simulation is a very hot topic these days. In modern designs, it is harder to draw a line between the analog and digital and work with them independently. Analog blocks are showing up everywhere. Even in what would have qualified as a digital design a few years ago, now designers need to look at things like PLLs, IOs and … Read More
In conjunction with the 2018 International Test Conference, Mentor has several interesting test announcements. They also have a busy round of technical activities, including a number of technical papers, presentations, tutorials and a poster from a major customer about using Mentor. I’d like to touch on the two product related… Read More
Technology scaling has made positive impacts on device performance, while creating challenges on the interconnects and the fidelity of its manufactured shapes. The process dimension scaling has significantly increased metal and via resistance for advanced nodes 7nm and onward, as shown in figures 1a,1b. Similar to a fancy… Read More
When I moved from the semiconductor industry to Mentor, I expected most of my technology and business experience to apply similarly in EDA software. To some extent, that was correct. But there was a fundamental difference that required a change… Read More
Coverage is a common metric with many manifestation. During the ‘90s, both fault and test coverage were mainstream DFT (Design For Testability) terminologies used to indicate the percentage of a design being observable or tested. Its pervasive use was then spilled over into other design segments such as code coverage, formal… Read More
Reliability of ICs isn’t a new thing, because back in 1980 I was investigating why a DRAM chip using 6um technology was having yield loss due to electromigration effects. I recall looking through a microscope at a DRAM layout and slowly ramping up the Vdd level then suddenly the shiny aluminum interconnect started to change… Read More
The ECU. That was the service department prognosis on the root cause of thealways-on air bag safety light on my immaculate car. Ten years ago the cost for its replacement with after market part was at par with getting a new iPhone 8. Today, we could get four units for the same price and according to data from several research companies,… Read More
