June 6, 2012 -- Mentor Graphics Corp. today announced that Mentor and Samsung Electronics have expanded their 20-nm collaboration announced in March to include Calibre sign-off design kits for 20nm, including multiple approaches to double patterning (DP) and advanced fill capabilities. Samsung also signed an agreement last November to expand its use of the Calibre platform for computational lithography, including advanced optical proximity correction and verification, and mask-process correction.

The collaborative design kit solution supports all International Semiconductor Development Alliance (ISDA) DP design flows with design rule, layout-versus-schematic (LVS) checking, and parasitic extraction enhanced to meet the challenging requirements of 20-nm designs. It also includes advanced capabilities for design-manufacturing co-optimization including intelligent multi-layer fill techniques, fast litho hotspot detection, and process-friendly design support.

"The Mentor Calibre platform is Samsung Foundry's sign-off and manufacturing choice for a number of reasons," said Dr. Kee Sup Kim, Vice President of System LSI Design Technology team, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. !Calibre continues to provide the most advanced physical verification, design-for-manufacturing (DFM), and mask-processing technology in support of Samsung's advanced process nodes. The tight linkage between Calibre tools provides a co-optimized flow between design and manufacturing to accelerate time-to-market. For example, using Calibre for both the manufacturing and design verification of double patterning allows Samsung to provide our customers with greater options to address their specific design style. Great performance, trusted results and openness are all important for a solution that works regardless of the customer's design cockpit, the size of their designs, or their preferred approach to double patterning.!

Mentor partnered with Samsung to develop production-ready foundry kits for 28nm, which enable physical verification, litho checking, critical-area analysis, critical-feature analysis, and dummy-fill solutions. For the 20-nm process, test chips coming from internal Samsung design teams and third-party IP providers have been taped out using a comprehensive Mentor flow including multi-patterning and advanced DFM checks. The Calibre platform supports all DP styles including colorless, auto two color, mixed two color and manual two color. The platform also provides features such as automated decomposition and patented real-time graphical "error rings" for coloring-conflict resolution, which reduces time-consuming iterations when fixing DP violations.