Method of design for manufacturing
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorKuo H. Wu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a system and method for enhancing integrated circuit designs and predicting the manufacturability. Design for manufacturability, or DFM, is an integration of DFM advisories; a DFM data kit presented in a DFM unified format; and DFM utilities utilizing the DFM data kit and the DFM advisories for enhancing integrated circuit (IC) designing.
Claims18
A computer-implemented design for manufacturing system (DFM), comprising:
- DFM advisories stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium;
- a DFM data kit stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium;
- and
- DFM utilities stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable on the computer, the DFM utilities utilizing the DFM data kit (DDK) and the DFM advisories for enhancing integrated circuit (IC) designing;
- wherein the data comprising the DFM data kit is presented in a DFM unified format (DUF), the DUF comprising at least one data structure selected from a group consisting of lithography process control data, chemical mechanical polishing data, and critical area analysis data, the DUF further comprising a unified format for presenting IC design and manufacturing data among a design tool vendor, an IC manufacturer, and a customer;
- and
- wherein the DFM system further comprises a mechanism to unify qualification criteria to qualify a DFM compliant IC design tool.
An integrated design for manufacturing (DFM) method comprising computer-implemented steps of:
- storing on at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium DFM data, a DFM data kit, and DFM utilities of a manufacturer, wherein the data comprising the DFM data kit is presented in a DFM unified format (DUF), the DUF comprising at least one data structure selected from a group consisting of lithography process control data, chemical mechanical polishing data, and critical area analysis data, the DUF further comprising a unified format for presenting IC design and manufacturing data among a design tool vendor, an IC manufacturer, and a customer;
- applying unified qualification criteria to qualify an IC design tool as a DFM compliant IC design tool;
- providing the DFM compliant design tool by a design tool vendor, the DFM compliant design tool comprising instructions executable on a computer;
- and
- developing a DFM compliant intellectual property library (IPLib) utilizing the DFM data, DFM utilities, and DFM compliant design tool, wherein the developing comprises the DFM compliant design tool executing on the computer accessing the DFM data and DFM utilities.
A computer program product for implementing a design for manufacturing (DFM) method, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a computer for causing the computer to:
- set up a unified qualification criteria;
- qualify a DFM design tool according to the unified qualification criteria;
- and
- utilize a DFM unified format (DUF) data with the DFM design tool, wherein the DUF data comprises at least one data structure selected from a group consisting of lithography process control data, chemical mechanical polishing data, and critical area analysis data;
- the DUF data further comprising a unified format for presenting IC design and manufacturing data among a design tool vendor, an IC manufacturer, and a customer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.