Samsung and Synopsys collaborate to establish sub-5nm node basis
Collaboration between Samsung and Synopsys has resulted in the successful deployment of Synopsys’ Yield Explorer yield learning platform for fast ramp-up of new products on Samsung’s advanced FinFET technology nodes.
Using the secure data exchange mechanism in Yield Explorer, Samsung is able to share the data required for yield analysis, such as chip design, fab, and test, with its customers while maintaining the confidentiality of proprietary information from each party. This has led to a fast product ramp for 10nm, 8nm and 7nm products and establishes a foundation for yield learning for 5nm, 4nm and 3nm technology nodes
JY Choi, vice president of the foundry design technology team at Samsung Electronics, said: “The secure collaboration model using Yield Explorer has greatly helped us to work efficiently with key customers to achieve target production yields quickly. We look forward to expanding this co-operation with Synopsys as we ramp up production on our 5nm technology node.”
Synopsys’ Yield Explorer is a yield learning platform used to perform root cause analysis using data from various sources, including layout, netlist, test diagnosis, static timing analysis for product design, fab data, such as inspection, metrology and wafer acceptance test, together with product test data, including bin, parametric and system-level test.
The powerful analysis engine employs advanced machine learning and data visualisation techniques and has a fast turnaround time for results.
“Yield analysis is a complex task which requires collaboration between teams from different organisations,” said Howard Ko, general manager of the silicon engineering group at Synopsys. “The speed and accuracy of identifying yield limiters is critical to achieving cost-effective high-volume production,” he added.
Yield Explorer is available now and is in production use at major semiconductor foundries and fabless customers.
Synopsys describes itself as the Silicon to Software partner for companies developing electronics products and software applications. It is the 15th largest software company and has strengths in electronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor IP and is growing its leadership in software security and quality.
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