Tutorial 6: Enhancing Yield through Design for Manufacturability (DFM)

Abstract

Summary form only given. This part of the tutorial will discuss in detail the manufacturing challenges in nanoscale VLSI and consequent design for manufacturability (DFM) approaches by taking a holistic approach in analyzing and addressing different process variability effects. We review the dominant process variations in semiconductor manufacturing process that affect the design yield, show their impact on layout quality, and present currently practiced DFM techniques to mitigate the effect of these variations. We also discuss various manufacturing-aware physical and circuit design methodologies and techniques for parametric yield improvement. This includes correct-by-construction methodologies such as Restricted Design Rules (RDRs) as well as manufacturing aware design approaches. In addition, we will briefly mention some of the many accepted and possible mitigation techniques in design post processing (after tape-out) and will introduce the concept of manufacturing for design (MFD) through design-intent processing.