Opportunities in Future Physical Implementation and Manufacturing Handoff Flows

We discuss aspects of silicon quality and value left on the table by current physical implementation and manufacturing handoff flows. These aspects include the following. (1) Proper expectations with respect to guardbanding of process, statistical design, and gaps in nascent flows. (2) How manufacturing variability should be deal with by design flows, e.g., with approaches less dogmatic than traditional “correct by construction” (prevention) or “construct by correction” (cure). (3) Opportunities to differentiate with physical implementation ‘glue’ technologies in place-and-route. (4) New targets for 45nm and 32nm deployment such as stress/strain modeling, layout support for double-patterning lithography, and ‘design for equipment’ synergies.