Manufacturability is paramount as IC designers move to process nodes below 90 nm. It's bad enough that tool runtimes are significantly longer and timing closure becomes much more challenging. But then designbased yield limiters, or "gotchas," sap performance and cause yields to plummet. Tied directly to the chip layout itself, these profit killers must be designed out from the start and can't be fixed in the fab.
Yet a new generation of routing technology will bring manufacturing awareness to the routing stage of the cycle. For example, Pyxis Technology's NexusRoute is a DFM-aware, yield-driven auto router that comprehends and optimizes manufacturability and yield concurrently with the actual routing and timing closure process. Intended for process technologies of 65 nm and below, it reduces design closure and manufacturing cycle time and increases chip yield by up to 10%, according to Pyxis.
At 45 nm, existing routing architectures will struggle to handle the complex interactions between design and process. NexusRoute, which can be easily integrated into existing design flows using open industry-standard interfaces, scales with the newer technologies (providing up to 4X gains in design and manufacturing closure time). The tool simultaneously optimizes design for timing, manufacturability, and yield as well (see the figure).
The company also has rolled out Pyxis Professional Services, a set of consulting and methodology services to help designers improve the yield on design blocks while assessing the impact of DFM design practices within their design environments. NexusRoute and Pyxis Professional Services are available now. NexusRoute pricing starts at $400,000 for a oneyear time-based license.
Pyxis Technology