Soaring Mask Cost for Leading-Edge Processes Pushes Designers to Eliminate Guesswork Before Committing Revisions to Second Silicon
NEW ORLEANS - Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions, now known as NPTest, a wholly owned subsidiary of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB), is featuring its Integrated Circuit Analysis Farm (ICAF) services and its revolutionary IDS OptiFIB circuit-modification tool in Booth #1163 at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in New Orleans June 10-13. These innovative engineering tools are used in the prototyping stage of semiconductor development to analyze in-circuit device performance and to edit circuits at first silicon, enabling designers to commit to a second silicon mask set with confidence in the revised design.
The IC Analysis Farm is the first and only service that utilizes the IDS PICA instrument to automatically gather important timing data used to analyze the in-circuit performance of new semiconductor devices. Designers use this data to understand how the device performs against specifications and to indicate where they can optimize performance in future revisions.
The IDS OptiFIB is a unique circuit-edit tool, enabling designers to modify circuits on the most advanced designs accurately and quickly, dramatically shrinking engineering lab time from weeks to days.
"Designers need resources that help them get their first silicon devices working as quickly as possible," stated Michel Villemain, vice president and general manager, Probe Systems, Schlumberger. "That's where our complementary offerings are invaluable. Using the data from the IC Analysis Farm designers can thoroughly understand how IP libraries perform on their own device. Then if they want a design change to further improve performance, the IDS OptiFIB instrument can edit devices even on the newest process technologies. With new masks for 90-nm costing $1M, designers must have assurance they will have an optimized, fully functioning device before they commit to produce the second mask set."
Both the award-winning IDS PICA instrument, introduced in 2001, and the IDS OptiFIB focused ion beam tool, launched in 2002, feature technological breakthroughs to support prototype devices manufactured with the newest processes, new materials, such as copper, low-k and SOI, and an increasing number of metal interconnect layers. The IDS PICA leverages photon-emission technology from IBM to capture timing data non-invasively. The IDS OptiFIB tool is the industry's first and only circuit-editing instrument to combine photon and ion beams in a coaxial column, enabling through-silicon edits on flip-chip packages with unmatched accuracy and fast turnaround time.
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About Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions
Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions is a leading provider of advanced test and diagnostic systems and product-related engineering services to the semiconductor industry. Schlumberger customers include semiconductor manufacturers, fabless companies, foundries and assembly contractors worldwide. Additional information is available at www.slb.com/semiconductors.
For further information, contact:
Mary Jo Colton
NPTest, Inc.
Tel: 408-586-6474
mcolton@nptest.com
© Press Release 2006
