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Extraction Continuum

Faster Collateral Generation & Tighter Correlation Between Tools

Covering Each Stage of the Design Technology Co-optimization (DTCO)

Design Technology Co-optimization (DTCO) has 3 major stages as shown in figure 1, Technology Development, Design Enablement, and IC Design, with each stage needing different extraction tools. On top of that, each stage of DTCO is performed by different groups in a foundry or IDM, many times in a silo. This results in inefficiencies and additional validation work when the output of one group is passed on to another group.  Each group manually creates collateral for their tools and correlates the output of the tools with other groups. The Extraction Continuum provides an automated flow that provides a seamless crossover from one tool to another making the DTCO chain more efficient, thereby enabling more efficient design experiments and faster PPA evaluations.

Figure 1: DTCO stages

The Typical Application Flow for Extraction Continuum

A typical application flow for extraction continuum is shown in figure 2. Each extraction tool is suited for a DTCO stage. Tech files for each tool originate from same source (Process Explorer) and they are correlated against each other, resulting in correlation by construction flow.

Figure 2: Extraction Continuum Typical Applications

Synopsys 91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Synopsys has tools to cover the entire extraction continuum as shown in Figure 3 with each tool trading off accuracy vs performance/capacity. There is an automated flow in place as shown in Figure 4 to generate tech files for each of the tools resulting in faster collateral generation & tighter correlation between the tools.

Figure 3: Spectrum of extraction tools to support the continuum

Figure 4: Auto-generation of Tech files for Raphael FX, QuickCap NX, Rapid3D from Process Explorer