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Checking and Error Disposition Strategy for IBM Designs
IBM states as follows:
"Test Site Multi Customer MPW runs have increased complexities and
schedule constraints, and therefore require a streamlined Foundry
verification and error disposition strategy. IBM performs Basic
checking on testsite MPWs to reduce complexity associated with
handling multiple designs, and to minimize overall tapeout related
churn (ie. data returns) and potential schedule impacts. This subset
of Basic checks include DRC, Density, Line mode/ orthoganality, and
XOR (if applicable) verification only. All other checking and
analysis is the MPW Provider and Customer's responsibility.
"IBM Error analysis and waiver requirements for test site multi
Customer MPW runs are limited to issues which can have external
impacts. External impacts errors are those violations which can
potentially have impacts beyond that of a Customer's individual
design, such as manufacturing tool or wafer contamination (ie. lifting
photo resist) , impacts to adjacent riders, impacts to manufacturing
kerf structures, and impacts to the mask house. Examples of external
impact violations (but not limited to the following) include density,
minimum space violations, off grid, and half line width errors. IBM
requires fixes or pre approved manufacturing waivers for violations of
this nature. The Customer is fully responsible for all other
violations that do not fall into the external impact bucket.
Violations of this nature are characterized as internal impact errors,
and examples include (but are not limited to the following) floating
gate, ESD, latchup, modeling related errors, and packaging related
rules. These issues do not require official waiver requests for MPW
testsite runs. However, it is strongly recommended that these issues
be fixed, as they can potentially impact yield, reliability,
performance, packaging, and ultimately the transfer of the design into
full production. Clean data is always the best strategy for all
parties.
"IBM MPW Provider Checking and Error Disposition is reserved for test
site activity, and is not suitable for production level designs due to
the reduced level of checking and error analysis. Full IBM
verification is recommended (and may be required), and full error
analysis is required for any Production Ready design. Also, a test
site design with existing violations may experience difficulties
transferring into production phase on a stand alone maskset. IBM
analyzes production designs with a much higher level of detail and
scrutiny, and may reject designs which may have previously passed
based on MPW Provider checking rules. It is strongly recommended that
all MPW designs tapeout as ground rule clean as possible (for all
checks) to help minimize this risk.
"Key Points:
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Basic Checking is Performed on IBM MPW Provider Test Site Runs: DRC,
Density, Line Mode/ Orthoganility, and XOR (if applicable).
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IBM Error Analysis and Waiver Requirements are Limited to Issues which
can have impacts external to a Customer's design
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Verification and Error Analysis not Covered by MPW Provider checking
strategy is Customer's and MPW Provider's Responsibility
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Testsite MPW runs and MPW Provider Checking are not suitable for
Production Ready Designs
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Testsite Designs with Errors require fixes (recommended) or
pre-approved waivers (which may be rejected) prior to transferring to
Production
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Clean Data is always the best strategy for all parties."
(MOSIS offers the following clarification of the policy statement
above:
Layout submitted to MOSIS for fabrication in one of the IBM processes
is checked for conformity to design rules and guidelines. MOSIS
assumes that the customer has performed all available checks and is
aware of all flags at the time he submits the layout for fabrication.
Checks detecting a condition which can affect other designs on a
shared reticle, or integrity of the fabrication process, will result
in the design being rejected for inclusion on that shared run.
Violations which affect only the project itself will generally be
waived, and the design will be accepted for manufacture on a shared
run.
However, for those remaining, waived violations flagged by the
available suite of IBM design checks, the customer grants an implicit
waiver and accepts all associated risk. Such violations include, but
are not restricted to, floating gate, antenna, ESD, latchup,
modeling-related errors, and packaging-related rule violations. IBM
and MOSIS strongly encourage the correction of these errors. Neither
IBM nor MOSIS are responsible for the quality of the resulting
fabricated circuit.
Acceptance of a design by MOSIS for manufacturing in one of the IBM
processes does not imply any guaranty of functionality of the
fabricated design. The significance of errors reported during design
checking must be evaluated by the designer. It is the customer's
responsibility to pursue appropriate action in response to errors and
warnings generated by the IBM design checks.
Only totally clean designs or designs with pre-approved waivers will
be accepted for production manufacturing by IBM. Acceptance of a
design for manufacturing on an IBM multi-project wafer lot does not
imply that the layout will be accepted for production manufacturing by
IBM. Designs destined for eventual production, should be
production-clean even when first submitted to an MPW run for
prototyping. If this is not done, the layout will have to be modified
to correct the flags and this will jeopardize the validity of
evaluations based on the prototypes. Please make MOSIS aware if an
MPW design should be considered an eventual production prototype, and
we will cooperate to screen it according to production design
guidelines.)
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