Keywords

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We have discussed three key trends in the IC Design for Manufacturability approaches of the early 2010’s, when key IC makers are moving along the Moore’s shrinkpath, passing the 28 nm technology node, on the way down to 22 nm and then, 15 nm.

Trend #1 – keep using the many generations-old, “classic” DfM with rule-based and model-based approaches to mask pattern corrections. Many of these approaches are still valid and important for the layouts with high degree of randomization.

Trend #2 – simplify DfM by requiring the layout to adhere to strict templates, in other words, remove the randomization. This approach is particularly true for device layers of active and poly, but may not work too well for the connecting layers that still need to have much more freedom.

Trend #3 – expand into new dimensions, such as the silicon volume, in other words, make sure the device would not be subject to 3D surprise defects. Add time as 4th dimension to prevent reliability failures. Engage a new realm of stress simulations based on the many material properties, neglected so far, but critical for the new device applications.

That latter aspect is of particular importance for the future devices that are being built now in such way that they would become our ears and eyes. They should see what a human eye can see, rain or shine. For that, they need to reliably operate in a wide range of temperatures, humidities, and pressures, especially when involved in the works of another piece of heavy machinery (automobiles).

But we are getting close to the point we would expect the IC’s to get us information from the future. It is not necessarily the “future in time”, but the locations where the humans cannot control the machine in real-time and have instead to rely on its intelligence.

Today it is the domain of pure research. An automated vehicle immersed in liquid methane on one of Jupiter’s moons cannot be remotely controlled from Earth due to the signal travel taking many hours. So it has to be designed to deal with the unknown.