Multi Chip Assembly editor

As the cost of a complete mask set has dramatically increased and now represents a significant part of the overall project cost, it is critical for design teams, mask data preparation teams, and mask shops to implement a robust and repeatable Mask Data Preparation flow, which increases the productivity of the mask set creation and removes any risk of error.

Multi Chip assemblies, also known as Multi-Project Wafers, Shuttles, or Pizza Masks, are becoming more prevalent in order to share mask costs between projects and are now used for manufacturing test chips, prototypes, and low production chips.

Multi Chip assemblies induce specific challenges to the mask data preparation team:

• A chip assembly step is necessary, which maximizes the number of chips placed into the reticule and minimized the number of wafers necessary to deliver all chips
• Customer projects must be synchronized. Whether chips are coming from external customers or internal teams, mask data preparation teams must deal with last minute project changes and make sure that every chip layout is manufacturable
• Huge heterogeneous layout databases from different providers must be assembled and all database consistency issues must be addressed before tape-out.

Often these operations are handled manually, making it a lengthy and error prone process, at a stage where errors can be very costly.

GTmuch is a powerful and fully automated workbench for creating multi-chip assemblies. It increases productivity, maximizes the yield, and eliminates the risk of error by combining an easy to use graphical editor whit powerful engines that automate all steps required for multi-chip assembly:

• A powerful production aware placement engine provides an optimum chip placement which minimizes production costs according to user specific needs
• A design database analyzer combined with an assembly rule checker warrants that the multi-chip assembly is free from error and can be manufactured
• A metal fill engine inserts “dummy tiles” into empty areas of the assembly to help flatten the surface of each metal layer before CMP and increase manufacturing yield
• The final layout database is constructed to avoid consistency problems and generated user documentation can be customized for the design teams and manufacturing

GTmuch creates fully verified manufacturable multi-chip assemblies and associated user documentation in a matter of hours.

GTmuch is fully integrated in XYALIS Mask Data Preparation solution and handles standard layout and job deck formats: GDSII, OASIS, MEBES. Each module can run through the common graphical user interface, or on the command line for automatic processing and easy inclusion in an existing flow.