TOKYO, SEMICON Japan, Dec. 10, 2024 – Rapidus Corporation, a manufacturer of advanced logic semiconductors, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Synopsys Inc., a provider of silicon to systems design solutions, intended to enable a solution that will shorten design cycle time, using a new approach to natively model process sensitivity and variation in the design steps. This new approach is designed to reduce the need for expensive re-characterization of libraries and memories during different phases of the process evolution leading to a significant reduction in design iterations and acceleration of the overall project execution cycle.
As part of the agreement, Synopsys will develop advanced design flows leveraging its AI-driven EDA suite and enable a broad IP portfolio on Rapidus’ 2nm gate-all-around (GAA) process. The collaboration will facilitate Rapidus’ Design for Manufacturing and Co-Optimization (DMCO) concept for simultaneously optimizing design and manufacturing and enabling agile design.
Characterization of the IP library is one of the bottlenecks in semiconductor design cycle time because the IP needs to be recharacterized each time the process design kit (PDK) or manufacturing process is updated. It can take two to three months to generate a timing model, which drastically slows down the design process. The new DMCO solution will address these bottlenecks by using Synopsys AI-driven EDA products, including Synopsys PrimeShieldTM, a machine learning (ML)-based timing model generation tool employing sensitivity libraries whenever PDKs or manufacturing processes are updated. Additionally, calibration using silicon data from Rapidus’ short turnaround time (TAT) manufacturing process will improve model accuracy and accelerate design convergence.
“Synopsys continues to play a mission-critical role as an on-ramp to the world’s leading foundries and we are often the first stop for foundry enablement,” said Sassine Ghazi, president and CEO of Synopsys. “Our extensive collaboration with Rapidus across Synopsys AI-driven EDA flows, IP and expert methodology services will facilitate an advanced DMCO solution that will enable designers to achieve optimal quality of results and high manufacturing yield for Rapidus’ 2nm GAA process.”
By incorporating the concept of Manufacturing for Design (MFD) in addition to conventional Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Rapidus will be able to use sensors and AI in the wafer process to streamline designs based on silicon big data from the manufacturing process. This collaboration will incorporate Rapidus’ big data into Synopsys AI-driven EDA flows to realize MFD for mutual customers. In addition, the Synopsys portfolio of interface and foundation IP for Rapidus process technologies will reduce integration risk and accelerate the path to silicon success.
Rapidus is building its Rapid and Unified Manufacturing Service (RUMS) to shorten the overall time-to-market for customers by providing integrated design support and front-end and back-end processes that will continue to enhance design support through DMCO.
Dr. Atsuyoshi Koike, CEO of Rapidus, said: “Our partnership with Synopsys is an important milestone in helping to simplify and quicken the design process. Rapidus’ vision for RUMS is to use a single-wafer front-end process. The massive amount of data that can be obtained from this process is highly compatible with Synopsys AI-driven EDA flows and IP, and we believe that this will be a step toward achieving our goal of short TAT production that is quicker than anywhere else.”
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