Jul 24 2009
Stratosphere Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of semiconductor IP and analysis tools that reduce the impact of variability on performance and parametric yield, today announced that its award winning StratoPro™ tool, used for technology development, manufacturing monitoring and modeling, has been silicon-proven at 32nm using a high-k metal gate process and is now available to customers who will be manufacturing at this technology node.
Context dependencies including physical features of the device and its environment are now as significant as length and width in determining transistor performance. Statistical characterization of devices ‘within-die’ is essential to provide accurate performance and variability metrics. Suitable sample sizes are needed to reduce noise and accurately characterize context dependencies in devices for 32nm technology. StratoPro™ technology empowers customers to perform such statistical characterizations to gather as many samples as possible within a small area on silicon to accurately generate context dependent models. StratoPro has proven today that context dependent variability models are essential for meaningful circuit simulation at the transistor level as well as higher level timing and power analysis.
"Accurately characterizing variations is critical to eDFM and statistical analysis,” said Dr. Vassilios Gerousis, Sr. Architect, Cadence Design Systems. “We worked with Stratosphere Solutions and foundry at 32nm to get an early visibility on context dependent variations that will allow us to deliver best-in-class and highly accurate models for eDFM, SSTA, and Analog design to our customers. We wanted to characterize both systematic and random variations with very high resolution by varying physical dimensions on as many devices combinations as possible, and at the same time be able to gather a lot of within-die statistical data to quantify context dependency.”
"We are excited to have collaborated with Cadence and its foundry partners to provide a silicon-proven StratoPro™ variability characterization platform for 32nm,” said Dr. Jim Bordelon, President and CTO, Stratosphere Solutions, Inc. “StratoPro’s capability to collect detailed, within-die statistical data empowers Cadence Virtuoso Custom IC and Encounter Digital Implementation System to accurately develop their eDFM and statistical models to better serve customers at 32nm. We believe that the technology challenges we face at 32nm and below make such silicon-based models essential for robust design.”