AMD PRODUCES 0.14 MICRON DEVICES IN RECORD TIME USING AVANT!'S SILICON EARLY ACCESS METHODOLOGY AVANT!'S TCAD SOFTWARE SIMULATION RESULTS IN a Significant Reduction in AMD's Process Development Cost and Time
FREMONT, Calif., Aug 2, 1999 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Avant! Corporation (Nasdaq: AVNT) today announced that its Silicon Early Access tool suite enabled Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to significantly reduce the number of experimental silicon runs and minimized development cost for its CS-50 project. The CS-50 project is 0.18 micron process technology with poly gates as small as 0.14 micron. Reduction of experimental silicon runs through application of accurate simulation tools is a key objective of Avant!'s Silicon EarlyAccessinitiative.
To develop the process recipe for the CS-50 project, AMD initially used TCAD simulation tools Taurus-TSUPREM4 and Medici to test novel device concepts such as HALOs, asymmetric devices, retrograde channels and retrograde well devices, and identified those that would provide true performance advantages. Once the conceptual device design was completed, the process flow was assembled, additional simulations were run and the simulated results wereused to design the first split lot.
"We were able to use Avant!'s TCAD simulations with a fairly limited amount of calibration to eliminate the unnecessary experimental splits before running silicon," explained Dr. Bill Liu, AMD's TCAD manager. "By running Avant!'s TCAD simulations, we only had to run three rounds of wafers to achieve target device specs and validate the results. This represents 10 percent of the rounds of wafers normally required. We've found that applying the simulation technology offered by Avant! accurately predicted process performance and reduced development time, cost and time to market."
From the first split lot, AMD obtained individual NMOS and PMOS device process parameters. With the second split lot, AMD achieved matched transistor characteristics on the same wafer and was able to do measurements on ring oscillators. The third split lot was for minor tuning.
"Now, we are going beyond 0.14 micron using this process. Although more split lots are necessary, the initial development was significantly shortened through Avant!'s software simulations," added Dr. Liu.
"Avant!'s Silicon Early Access initiative links traditional TCAD andECAD technologies to improve and accelerate process development for very deep submicron technologies," said Gerald C. Hsu, president, chairman, and CEOof Avant!. "We are pleased AMD has experienced the benefits of this technology. This simulation methodology accurately predicts silicon effects and device behaviors prior to producing silicon. Customers like AMD are realizing significant benefits from this approach, and we are confident that momentum will continue. As the leading TCAD-to-ECAD vendor in the EDA industry, we have successfully demonstrated accurately modeled silicon behavior that offers our customers benefits throughout the IC design process."
About Avant! Avant! (pronounced ah VAHN tee) Corporation develops, markets, and supports integrated circuit design automation (ICDA) software for the design of deep submicron ICs including microprocessors, microcontrollers, application-specific standard products (ASSPs) and complex application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Avant!'s product offering and chip design methodologies cover Design Authoring, process characterization, circuit simulation and analysis, HDL simulation, formal verification, floorplanning, physical design and VDSM optimization, interconnect parasitic extraction, timing simulation, and physical verification. Avant! also provides physical foundation IP libraries for integrated circuit design. Avant!'s tools support hierarchical design methodologies as well as incremental design changes in all phases, and they offer the capacity needed for multi-million transistor devices.
Avant! is headquartered in Fremont, California with offices worldwide. Tel 510-413-8000, Fax 510-413-8080 avanticorp.com .
Avant!, Medici and Taurus-TSUPREM-4 are trademarks of Avant! Corporation. All other company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners and should be treated assuch.
SOURCE Avant! Corporation
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