Putting a Mask an a Viable X Architecture

Electronic News, Oct 8, 2001 by Jeff Chappell

DuPont Photomasks, partners produce potential reticle

X architecture took a step toward the semiconductor mainstream today with DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI) and Simplex Solutions Inc. saying that they have produced a viable X architecture mask.

Reticle manufacturer DPI (nasdaq: DPMI) and EDA company Simplex (nasdaq: SPLX) were able to successfully write and inspect the mask using existing software and equipment geared for 0.18-micron process technologies. Round Rock, Texas-based DPI said the mask results fall within normal ranges for that of traditional designs.

DPI and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Simplex are members of the X Initiative, a consortium of semiconductor companies promoting pervasive use of diagonal routing, the so-called X architecture.

According to the X Initiative, the X architecture reduces the total interconnects on a chip by more than 20 percent, which in turn increases performance 10 percent or more, decreases power dissipation by 20 percent or more, and allows 30 percent more chips on a wafer.

The X architecture rotates the primary direction of interconnects in the fourth and fifth metal layers of a chip by 45 degrees from that of the right angles in standard chip architecture-what the X Initiative has labeled liquid routing. Interconnects can be routed in any of eight different directions. The architecture maintains compatibility with existing cell libraries, memory cells, compilers and IP cores by preserving the standard geometry of the first three metal layers, according to the X Initiative.

"Our ability to quickly and cost-effectively produce a test X Architecture photomask using today's equipment is really a step forward," Ken Rygler, executive vice president of marketing and strategic planning at DPI.

DPI created the X architecture mask from a standard GDSIL file supplied by Simplex incorporating 0.18-micron design data with optical proximity correction. DPI then fractured the data using Numerical Technologies Inc.'s CATS mask data preparation software and etched the mask using Etec Systems' ALTA 3700 laser mask pattern generation tool and finally inspecting it with a KLA-Tencor Corp. 363 ultraviolet inspection tool.

While DPI has demonstrated a feasible X architecture mask, Simplex and one of the X Initiative's chipmaking members, Toshiba Corp., have designed a RISC processor core with an X architecture, and the Tokyo-based company expects to incorporate liquid routing in additional designs next year.

New X Men

The X Initiative also expects to announce this Thursday the addition of eight additional members, swelling the consortium's ranks to 23 companies. The members to be added include mask maker Photronics and design-related companies MicroArk Co., Monterey Design Systems, NurLogic Design, Prolific, Silicon Logic Engineering, SiliconMap and Virage Logic.

Existing members include DPI, Simplex, Etec, KLA-Tencor, Numerical Technologies, Artisan Components, Dai Nippon Printing, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., PDF Solutions, Silicon Perspective, Simplex Solutions, STMicroelectronics, Tensilica, Toshiba Machine Co., Toshiba and Virtual Silicon Technology.