OREANDA-NEWS. Mentor Graphics Corp. today announced further enhancements and optimizations for various products within the Calibre® Platform, and Analog FastSPICE (AFS™) Platform, as well as the completion of further certifications and reference flows for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) 16FFC FinFET and 7nm FinFET processes. Moreover, the Calibre offering has been extended on additional established TSMC processes in support of the growing Internet of Things (IoT) design market requirements.

The AFS Platform, including AFS Mega simulation, has been certified for the TSMC 16FFC FinFET and the TSMC 7nm FinFET process technologies through TSMC’s SPICE Simulation Tool Certification Program. The AFS Platform supports TSMC design platforms for mobile, HPC, automotive, and IoT/wearables. Analog, mixed-signal, and RF design teams at leading semiconductor companies worldwide will benefit from using Analog FastSPICE to efficiently verify their chips designed in 16FFC and 7nm FinFET technologies.

Mentor’s Calibre xACT™ extraction offering is now certified for the TSMC 16FFC FinFET and the TSMC 7nm FinFET process technologies. Calibre xACT extraction leverages its built-in deterministic fast field-solver engine to deliver needed accuracy around three-dimensional FinFET devices and local interconnect. Its scalable multiprocessing delivers sufficient punch for large leading-edge digital designs. In addition, both companies continue extraction collaboration in established process nodes, with additional corner variation test cases and tighter criteria to ensure tool readiness for IoT applications. 

The Calibre PERC™ reliability platform has also been enhanced to enable TSMC 7nm customers to run point-to-point resistance checks at full chip. This greater capacity allows customers to quickly analyze interconnect robustness at all levels (IP, block, and full chip) while verifying lower resistance paths on critical electrostatic discharge (ESD) circuitry, helping ensure long-term chip reliability. Likewise, Calibre Multi-Patterning functionality has been enhanced for 7nm, including new analysis, graph reduction and visualization capabilities which are essential to customers designing and debugging this completely new multi-patterning technique.

The Calibre YieldEnhancer ECOFill solution, initially developed for 20nm, has now been extended to all TSMC process nodes from 7nm to 65nm. Designers at all process nodes will now be able to minimize fill runtimes, manage fill hierarchy, and minimize shape removal when implementing changes to the initial design.