Integrated circuit chip design flow methodology including insertion of on-chip or scribe line wireless process monitoring and feedback circuitry
First Claim
1. A system for designing and manufacturing an integrated circuit chip, said system comprising:
- an analyzer receiving design data representative of a design of an integrated circuit chip, said design comprising a plurality of integrated circuit chip components and said analyzer further analyzing said data to identify said components;
a library comprising a set of pre-qualified intra-process monitoring circuits; and
a design data editor modifying said design data to incorporate at least one intra-process monitoring circuit selected from said library in order to allow intra-process monitoring of at least one process-dependent parameter of at least one of said components of said integrated circuit chip during fabrication of a wafer that comprises multiple instances of said integrated circuit chip, said process-dependent parameter comprising any one of an electrical parameter and a physical parameter of said at least one of said components.
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Abstract
Disclosed are embodiments of a design and manufacturing system and an associated method that allow for design analysis and for insertion, during wafer manufacture, of intra-process monitoring circuitry. These embodiments use a library of pre-qualified intra-process monitoring circuits and a cross-correlation table that links different monitoring circuits with different IC chip components. Specifically, these embodiments analyze integrated circuit chip design data to identify the components designed into the chip. Then, one or more intra-process monitoring circuits are selected from the library and the design data is modified to include the selected monitoring circuit(s).
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for designing and manufacturing an integrated circuit chip, said system comprising:
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an analyzer receiving design data representative of a design of an integrated circuit chip, said design comprising a plurality of integrated circuit chip components and said analyzer further analyzing said data to identify said components; a library comprising a set of pre-qualified intra-process monitoring circuits; and a design data editor modifying said design data to incorporate at least one intra-process monitoring circuit selected from said library in order to allow intra-process monitoring of at least one process-dependent parameter of at least one of said components of said integrated circuit chip during fabrication of a wafer that comprises multiple instances of said integrated circuit chip, said process-dependent parameter comprising any one of an electrical parameter and a physical parameter of said at least one of said components. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An integrated circuit chip design flow method comprising:
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analyzing design data, said design data being representative of a design of an integrated circuit chip comprising a plurality of integrated circuit chip components and said analyzing comprising identifying said components; selecting at least one intra-process monitoring circuit from a library, said library comprising a set of pre-qualified intra-process monitoring circuits; and modifying said design data to incorporate said at least one intra-process monitoring circuit in order to allow intra-process monitoring of at least one process-dependent parameter of at least one of said components of said integrated circuit chip during fabrication of a wafer that comprise multiple instances of said integrated circuit chip, said process-dependent parameter comprising any one of an electrical parameter and a physical parameter of said at least one of said components. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An integrated circuit chip design flow and fabrication method comprising:
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analyzing design data, said design data being representative of a design of an integrated circuit chip comprising a plurality of integrated circuit chip components and said analyzing comprising identifying said components; selecting at least one intra-process monitoring circuit from a library, said library comprising a set of pre-qualified intra-process monitoring circuits; modifying said design data to incorporate said at least one intra-process monitoring circuit; generating an extension to a test program to allow for intra-process monitoring of at least one process-dependent parameter of at least one of said components of said integrated circuit chip using said at least one intra-process monitoring circuit during fabrication of a wafer comprising multiple instances of said integrated circuit chip, said process-dependent parameter comprising any one of an electrical parameter and a physical parameter of said at least one of said components; and modifying routing instructions to incorporate said extension. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification