Early addressing IC and package relationship allows an overall better quality of complex SOC

Trends in silicon process and packaging technologies require a tighter integration among manufacturing steps historically well distinct. It is becoming increasingly difficult to design and manufacture the most complex systems-on-a-chip (SOC) without a unified approach which allows taking into account the relationship between the package and the integrated circuits (IC) design flows. We present a new methodology, able to convey board- and package-related information into the classical IC design flow and vice versa. This is the key to ensure the physical implementation is correct the first time, meeting high-density and high-speed design challenges. ICPack (IC & Package Design Integration) is a flexible and adaptable EDA environment, Java- and Web-based, which aims at reducing the number of iterations required to meet the design objectives in terms of quality, reliability, productivity and time to qualification.