Siemens Digital Industry Software has launched its innovative Calibre® DesignEnhancer software, which enables integrated circuit (IC), layout and wiring (P&R) and full custom design teams to automate “Calibre Design-is-right” layout modification optimizations early in the IC design and validation process. This in turn dramatically increases productivity, improves design quality and reduces time to market.

Calibre DesignEnhancer is the latest in a series of “left-shift” tools from Siemens‘ Calibre® nmPlatform physical verification platform, enabling custom and digital design teams to quickly and accurately optimize their designs. To reduce or eliminate voltage drop (IR drop) and electromigration (EM) problems, thereby enhancing the readiness of physical verification. By supporting automatic layout optimization during the IC design and implementation phases, Calibre DesignEnhancer tools can help customers achieve “DRC-Clean” for Tapeout faster, while improving design manufacturability and circuit reliability.

Pier Luigi Rolandi, Director of Intelligent Power Technology R&D and Design Support at STMicroelectronics, said:

“The Calibre DesignEnhancer solution helps us continue to enhance our IC design, which is particularly effective in addressing issues such as over-specification resistance and IR voltage reduction.”

Before performing physical validation of IC designs, engineers often rely on third-party P&R tools to integrate designs for manufacturability (DFM) optimization, which often requires repeated, time-consuming operations to get a “DRC-Clean” result; Using the Siemens Calibre DesignEnhancer tool, design teams can significantly reduce turnaround times and EM/IR issues when preparing layouts for physical verification.

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The Calibre DesignEnhancer tool currently offers three usage models

Overhole modification automatically analyzes layout and inserts more than 1 million Calibre-Clean overholes to reduce the impact of overhole resistance on EM/IR and reliability. Based on a deep understanding of IC layout and signoff design rules, through-hole insertion helps customers achieve power consumption goals without compromising performance or area metrics.
The power/ground enhancement automatically analyzes the layout and inserts Calibre NMDC-clean holes and connection wires in the open track to form parallel interconnections, thereby reducing the resistance of the power/ground network and reducing IR and EM issues in the power network. Customers have used Calibre DesignEnhancer to reduce IR pressure drop issues by up to 90%.
Fill unit insertion optimizes the insertion of decoupling capacitors (DCaps) and fill units for physical verification. This replaces the traditional P&R fill cell insertion process, helping to deliver higher quality results and up to 10 times faster operations.

Michael White, Senior Physical Validation Product Management Director, Calibre Design Solutions, Siemens Digital Industrial Software, said:

“Today’s IC design environment is challenging, and engineering teams with advanced processes often work under established area and project time constraints, making it difficult to optimize layout for manufacturability and high performance; With Calibre DesignEnhancer, designers can take advantage of Calibre’s polygon speed and precision early in the design cycle and avoid surprises later in the design cycle.”

Calibre DesignEnhancer solutions use market-proven technologies, engines and Calibre’s rule set to help customers achieve “design is right”, Calibre DRC-Clean results while signoff validates quality. The solution can read OASIS, GDS, and LEF/DEF as input files and output layout changes using any combination of OASIS, GDS, or incremental DEF files, which helps design teams easily backlabel Calibre DesignEnhancer changes into the design database. For commonly used tools to perform power and timing analysis, allowing further analysis early in the design creation life cycle.

Calibre DesignEnhancer tools leverage industry interface standards and integrate with all major design and implementation environments to provide an easy-to-use work environment. The Calibre DesignEnhancer suite is now available to all leading foundries that support 130 nm to 2 nm designs, depending on the model and technology used.