Mentor Graphics design-to-silicon solutions implemented as part of Samsung's new 32nm HKMG offering

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. announced that the low power 32nm Hi-K Metal Gate (HKMG) offering from Samsung Electronics Foundry business (Samsung Foundry) includes Mentor Graphics Calibre design-to-silicon solutions as critical components for both design and manufacturing.

Mentor Calibre OPC and Calibre Mask Data Prep products are used in the manufacturing flow, while Calibre Physical Verification and DFM products are part of Samsung Foundry’s supported design flow.

“Mentor and Samsung have been collaborating for years on the development and successful deployment of Calibre platform capabilities for both design and manufacturing enablement that provide cost and productivity efficiencies benefiting both Samsung and their foundry customers,” said Dr. KM Choi, vice president, System LSI Design Technology, Samsung Electronics.

“The benefits of our collaboration and commitment to partnership can be seen in the timely availability of a comprehensive design-to-silicon solution enabling 32nm HKMG technology to be successfully utilized by the fabless design community.”

Samsung Foundry and Mentor are providing a comprehensive set of capabilities for gate-first 32 nm HKMG designs based on the industry leading Calibre platform, which is the primary signoff environment for Common Platform technologies.

The Mentor solution for Samsung Foundry 32 nm HKMG includes Calibre nmDRC and nmLVS for physical verification, Calibre LFD for litho variability checking, and Calibre YieldAnalyzer, YieldEnhancer for DFM. Calibre OPC and mask data preparation tools are deployed in the mask data prep flow, enabling accurate litho simulation and correction capabilities and providing fast mask turnaround times.

The Samsung Foundry-Calibre solution is more than a standard foundry reference flow because the joint solution is also used by Samsung System LSI designers in the creation of some of the most advanced high volume products in the industry. The overall flow and the Samsung design kits are constantly validated and updated by Samsung internally so that mutual customers can count on a silicon-proven design flow.

Moreover, using the complete Calibre DFM platform and the robust design kits that are part of the Samsung 32nm offering, mutual customers can tune their designs to achieve smoother design ramps at Samsung.

“Samsung is an innovative partner that has helped Mentor continuously extend the Calibre platform to achieve rapid technology development cycle times and industry leading design and manufacturing results,” said Joseph Sawicki, vice president and general manager of the Design-to-Silicon Division at Mentor Graphics.

“Our collaboration in design verification, computational lithography and the mask production flow has produced a comprehensive capability for successful design-to-manufacturing handoff. The result is both time-to-market and yield benefits for design companies that take advantage of this new Samsung process technology.”