IC designers are a lucky bunch. Through many years of semiconductor process evolution, the impact of manufacturing limitations and variations on layout could be encapsulated in relatively simple ...

As integrated circuit (IC) designs have grown in complexity, scale and speed requirements, design rule checking (DRC) has evolved from a routine step into a critical pillar of successful tapeouts.

Variation, edge placement error, and a variety of other issues at new process geometries are forcing chipmakers and EDA vendors to confront a growing volume of increasingly complex, and sometimes ...

Many of today's large, complex designs can contain thousands of lines of Verilog or VHDL code. Quite often, teams of engineers—with some members possibly situated in disparate locations worldwide—will ...