A Window Into Printed Silicon Brings Design And Manufacturing Closer

July 20, 2006

Since 2003, Aprio has strived to link the disciplines of design and manufacturing. With the launch of a new application called Halo-Quest, Aprio has moved closer to a unified approach that brings foundry data into the design world. It also fe

David Maliniak

Halo-Quest is designed to be incorporated into other tools. It delivers what Aprio has termed the "DFM View" of designs, which is, in essence, an accurate physical representation of the design as it would print in silicon.

The DFM View, derived from a GDSII input, has three variants (see the figure). One, the contour view, accurately represents the printed image. A second variant, the rectilinear view, is intended for interfacing with electrical-characterization tools. The third variant, the hot-spot view, provides error vectors that identify potential lithographic errors.

Halo-Quest already is being rolled out as components of third-party tools. Silicon Canvas's Laker suite of layout tools uses it to see and repair lithography errors. Aprio also has worked with Pyxis Technology to integrate Halo-Quest into its DFM router. This effort takes advantage of Halo-Quest's use of the OpenAccess interoperability standard.

And, Aprio has collaborated on incorporating the DFM View into KLA-Tencor's DesignScan tool to quickly and accurately apply localized optical-proximity correction (OPC) repairs to problem areas identified by DesignScan.

In all cases, Halo-Quest's incremental capabilities provide for reuse of OPC results and lithography data. Halo-Quest initially performs an overnight analysis that does lithography simulation and saves the results. Subsequently, when changes are made, analysis is rerun only on the portions that have been altered.

Initial versions of tools incorporating Halo-Quest are expected to ship in the fourth quarter.

Aprio Technologies Inc.
www.aprio.com

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.