Since the semiconductor industry hit the 0.18-micron generation, device feature sizes have become increasingly smaller than the wavelength of light used by available optical-lithography equipment. In this subwavelength arena, manufacturing requirements must be handled up front in the IC design stage—while changes can still be made—to enhance quality and yield. This paper defines the components ...

Despite 30 years of Electronic Design Automation, analog IC layouts are still handcrafted in a laborious fashion today due to the complex challenge of considering all relevant design constraints. This paper presents Self-organized Wiring and Arrangement of Responsive Modules (SWARM), a novel approach addressing the problem with a multi-agent system: autonomous layout modules interact with each ...

Integrated circuit design advances into the nanoscale era towards more compact, higher performance and lower power devices. However, the large number of transistors per die has entailed an increase of device variability due to subwavelength lithography and layout complexity impacting manufacturability. Therefore, regular designs has emerged as an alternative cell design style towards more litho...

Modern integrated circuits (IC) operate in environment of various destabilizing factors which have essential influence on the operation of these circuits and often even disturb the normal operation. One of these destabilizing factors is the cosmic radiation, particularly total ionization dose effects (TID). For modern TID tolerant ICs [1-4] design is being done by circuit designers. In this pap...

The reliability of an integrated circuit (IC) is a strong function of temperature. In this study, we developed domputer-aided design tools to predict the temperature distribution of an IC die and compared it with thermal maps obtained by infrared (IR) imaging. A temperature sensor array fabricated on test chips was used to measure the actual surface temperature of an IC die., This array was use...

This is Part I of a sequence of two papers on Contract-Based Design (CBD). It is intended to: • Introduce the concepts underlying CBD; • Present the challenges facing facing designers of large-scale complex systems today; • Review the design methodologies so far used to address these challenges and show how contracts can be used in all these approaches to enhance their applicability and the qua...

An alternative approach for evaluating the efficiency of integrated circuit (IC) design firms is presented in this paper. We took into account the differences between technology groups, containing one or more design firms, and input and output factors to prevent influences of scale (e.g., firm size). Specifically, we employed a directional distance function approach to data envelopment analysis...

In the fast-paced semiconductor industry, time to market means everything. Accommodating the shortened design cycles, however, is hampered by the ever-increasing design complexity. In addition, the continual drive to achieve higher performance (speed, area, power) has fueled the introduction of new manufacturing processes. Existing integrated circuit design methodologies, such as standard-cells...