TSMC certifies ANSYS' electromigration and thermal reliability solns

PITTSBURGH, USA: ANSYS has announced that its RedHawk and Totem products are certified for TSMC 16-nanometer (nm) FinFET+ (N16FF+), a second-generation FinFET technology.

TSMC has certified these solutions for static and dynamic voltage drop analysis, electromigration (EM) verification and thermal reliability with V0.9 of Design Rule Manual (DRM) and SPICE model, and V1.0 certification is on track to be concluded by November 2014.

In addition, TSMC and ANSYS have been collaborating to enable power integrity and reliability for TSMC 10-nanometer (N10) process technology. With N10 specific tool enhancement implemented, customers can now use ANSYS tools to start their designs in TSMC N10 technology.

FinFET technology is a three-dimensional transistor architecture that results in higher-performing and lower power chips used in mobile, computing and networking applications. But, designs implemented using these devices have complex metal geometry and higher drive currents compared to planar FET, making power integrity and electromigration key design requirements.

Innovative algorithms within RedHawk and Totem reduce the memory footprint and runtime performance to meet the increased computational requirements caused by growing design complexity. These products deliver accurate full-chip power analysis and expanded EM rules support for system-on-chip (SoC) and mixed-signal design sign-off.

In addition, FinFET architecture has higher local self-heating caused by lower thermal conductivity of the substrate and the difficulty in heat dissipation due to narrow fins, which in turn can impact the EM reliability of the design. RedHawk supports TSMC’s measurement-based self-heat model with micron-level resolution, enabling thermal convergence.

“The ANSYS IC power solutions address power, noise and reliability challenges for TSMC’s most advanced process nodes and design technologies,” said Norman Chang, vice president and senior product strategist at ANSYS.

“The certification of RedHawk and Totem for 16nm FinFET Plus technology demonstrates how our products are delivering the accuracy required for IR, EM and thermal sign-off for our mutual customers.”

“Certification of RedHawk and Totem in 16nm FinFET+ of ANSYS tools enables chip designers to efficiently deliver more robust and reliable SoC for the next generation of electronic products,” said Suk Lee, TSMC senior director, design infrastructure marketing division.