UMC Releases 65nm DFM Design Enablement Kit

New DEK offers fabless semiconductor customers comprehensive support for leading EDA vendors' DFM tools

HSINCHU, Taiwan - December 11, 2007 - UMC, a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced the release of its comprehensive all-in-one 65nm design for manufacturing (DFM) support package. The new DFM Design Enablement Kit (DEK) encompasses all the models required by qualified model-based DFM tools that support UMC's 65nm process technology. The company collaborated with leading EDA vendors to develop the DEK in order to provide an easy to use DFM solution for its 65nm customers.

"It is well known that IC designs produced at the 65nm node and below face multiple production challenges such as increasing process variations and rapidly diminishing printability, which often lead to undesirable manufacturing yields and unacceptable performance variations," said Patrick T. Lin, head of worldwide IP development and design support at UMC. "To help designers offset their 65nm production challenges, UMC has been closely collaborating with the industry's leading EDA vendors to successfully deliver optimal DFM solutions."

UMC's DEK package consists of 65nm DFM solutions in three main areas:

Critical Area Analysis (CAA): users can perform critical area optimization such as wire spreading and widening with encrypted defect density data to improve Defect-Limited Yield (DLY).

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP): with CMP thickness analysis, CMP simulation based on the advanced CMP model determines thickness variation and compensates with timing driven metal fill.

Lithography Simulation Check (LSC): the tool analyzes impact from different layout practices and identifies potential lithography hotspots using lithography simulation tools with the encrypted technology data.

Based on robust and silicon-validated models, the DEK offers comprehensive support for leading DFM tools, both in platform-based solutions and in alternative design flows by mixing and matching EDA tools from different vendors. The package includes a user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for easy setup of a DFM design database, completed with application notes and qualification reports for design reference. The application note demonstrates how the tools can be deployed in various design flows. The qualification report shows the accuracy and effectiveness by comparing the tool's prediction correlated with proven silicon data.

"The DEK is the newest addition to our comprehensive DFM support for leading edge process technology. It's a testimony to our commitment to deliver our customers the foundry industry's most comprehensive and user friendly DFM solutions," said Garry Shyu, director of design tool & DFM support, system & architecture support at UMC.

Partner Quotes
"The UMC DEK is an ideal interface between Cadence's model-based, variation-aware DFM solution and a 65nm foundry process," said Nitin Deo, group director of DFM marketing at Cadence. "The UMC DEK provides easy access to Cadence's fast lithography estimation and industry-leading physical, electrical, CMP and timing analysis DFM technologies, closing the loop for designers seeking effective yield-enhancing DFM solutions."

"Magma supports the qualified DFM DEK approach of UMC in its Talus^TM, Blast and Quartz^TM products. Utilizing the DEK we are able to address the areas of critical-area analysis, CMP and litho hot-spot correction during implementation and at final tapeout," said John Lee, general manager of Magma's Physical Verification Business Unit. "This approach combines UMC's process information with Magma's implementation and sign-off tools, and gives customers the best solution for designing at 65nm. We're confident that this solution will relieve the concerns that customers may have regarding manufacturability issues relating to design and allow them to produce products with better yield and performance."

"We are pleased to work with UMC to ensure our customers have access to accurate DFM tools optimized for UMC's manufacturing process," said Joe Sawicki, vice president and general manager, Design to-Silicon Division, Mentor Graphics. "UMC customers who use Calibre for signoff can also use our integrated DFM tools that work seamlessly with UMC's encrypted DFM models to improve their yield."

"We are glad that our full chip DFM-fix tool Acuma^TM has been qualified in UMC's DEK through our mutual customers," said by Yongbo Jia, president of Nannor Technologies, Inc. "DFM fix emerges as a valuable step for SoC designs at 65nm and below. Based on our patented technologies, Acuma provides designers a full chip post layout optimization solution with unparalleled capacity and speed for manufacture closure, while retaining timing, signal integrityand power closure. Acuma can be seamlessly integrated with mainstream EDA design flows, including Cadence, Magma, and Synopsys."

"Our collaboration with UMC through Ponte's Building Bridges^TM Partner Program continues to benefit our mutual customers," said Michael Buehler-Garcia, vice president of marketing and business development, Ponte Solutions. "Today's announcement expands our mutual efforts, giving 65nm designers the capability to custom tune their designs, thereby gaining the maximum value from UMC's 65nm offering."

"As design for new technology nodes become more complex and the need for first-pass silicon success increases, DFM innovation is a vital component in enabling customers to meet their design schedules and yield expectations," said Rich Goldman, vice president of strategic market development at Synopsys. "Through our strategic relationship with UMC, focused on the DFM flow and tools for yield analysis and enhancement, Synopsys is helping UMC to provide proven DFM solutions to address our joint customers' needs."

Availability
The DEK package from UMC currently supports leading EDA tools from Cadence Design Systems, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics, Nannor Technologies, Ponte Solutions, and Synopsys. It is immediately available upon request through UMC's customer service or design support departments.

About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced system-on-chip (SoC) designs for applications spanning every major sector of the IC industry. UMC's SoC Solution Foundry strategy is based on the strength of the company's advanced technologies, which include production proven 90nm, 65nm, mixed signal/RFCMOS, and a wide range of specialty technologies. Production is supported through 10 wafer manufacturing facilities that include two advanced 300mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs approximately 13,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.