Cadence Design Systems has acquired Clear Shape Technologies Inc., a design-for-manufacturing (DFM) technology company specializing in design-side tools for minimizing silicon yield loss. Combined with Cadence's existing DFM methodologies and capabilities, the acquisition strengthens Cadence’s DFM portfolio, extending manufacturing awareness and lithographic correctness through all layers in an IC from transistor through interconnect. These capabilities can be applied to designs ranging from SoCs to full-custom as well as all design domains including analog, digital, and mixed signal.
Traditional manufacturing-side lithography analysis products take days, even weeks to run, which is unacceptable for competitive chip design. Clear Shape's technology aims to not only offer orders-of-magnitude performance improvements in detecting lithographic "hot spots," but also models the impact of optical processing variations on the electrical performance of the chip. Supposedly, this combination significantly improves and extends pre-tapeout DFM capabilities, it’s claimed.
Clear Shape's products are in the DFM qualification programs of the major semiconductor foundries. Clear Shape's InShape technology is the first qualified TSMC Reference Flow 8.0 lithography process checker for all levels (transistor through interconnect) for devices at 65 nm, 55 nm, and 45 nm.
The acquisition was completed on Aug. 15. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Cadence Design Systems