Maximizing wafer productivity through layout optimizations

Success of the fabless model has increased competition and has put pressure on design houses to reduce die costs. One method of cost reduction is the application of design for manufacturability (DFM) at the layout stage. Previously DFM has been applied to standard cell libraries and has been shown to lower die cost by 4.6%. This paper applies DFM to the routing. In particular this paper analyzes the effects of various routing options on wafer productivity and shows that if properly applied DFM can lead to a further die cost reduction of 9%.