Parametric DFM Addresses Gate Leakage

摘要

The gap between design and manufacturing just got a little more narrow, thanks to recently developed technology by a new company, Blaze DFM (Sunnyvale, Calif.). The company's just-released software is said to be the industry's first electrical design for manufacturing (DFM) solution. Created for chip designers, the software is capable of analyzing how a design uses each transistor and then allows CDs to be selectively modified to reduce leakage current or optimize timing and tighten up leakage variability. On 90 and 65 nm designs, the approach has been proven to reduce leakage power by up to 40% and leakage variability by up to 60%, and improve timing by as much as 10%.