Synopsys joins CEA-Leti’s IMAGINE program on maskless lithography

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: CEA-Leti announced that Synopsys, Inc., a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, has joined the IMAGINE program designed to develop maskless lithography for IC manufacturing. Synopsys is the 10th industrial partner to join IMAGINE.

CEA-Leti and MAPPER Lithography launched the program in July 2009 with the delivery of MAPPER’s Massively Parallel Electron Beam Platform to Leti.

The MAPPER platform is the core technology on which the IMAGINE program is built. This program provides the world’s major chip manufacturers with the opportunity to assess maskless lithography technology in a real manufacturing environment. In addition, it will develop and qualify the complete infrastructure, from data preparation to process integration, in preparation for its industrial introduction in 2015.

“Maskless lithography has emerged as a contender for extending IC manufacturing to technology nodes below 15 nanometers. The IMAGINE program brings together leaders from all areas of IC manufacturing in the assessment and deployment of this technology,” said Fabio Angelillis, VP, engineering of the Silicon Engineering Group at Synopsys. “Synopsys is pleased to contribute its technology leadership in mask tools, including mask synthesis and mask data preparation, to help drive effective software solutions for the IMAGINE program.”

“One of the key points for the ML2 technology is the ability to handle very large data files, and we will need to quickly establish the proper data format standard,” said Serge Tedesco, CEA-Leti program manager. “Having Synopsys’ extensive experience in helping define data format and solutions to related issues will be essential to our success.”