Cadence unveils 'first yield diagnostics tool'

Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s Encounter Diagnostics is touted by the company to be the industry's first yield diagnostics tool.

This new tool accelerates yield by identifying customers' most critical nanometer IC yield issues and precisely locating root cause defects, said the press release. The result is higher yield in less time, added Cadence. The tool also supports all digital design styles and test vectors produced by all popular ATPG tools.

Developed in conjunction with IBM and demonstrated with select customers, Encounter Diagnostics provides a set of advanced capabilities required for effective volume and precision operation. It includes static and dynamic diagnostics, patented Pattern Fault Modeling, and support of all industry standard test vectors.

Traditional ATPG-based diagnostics tools are typically less than 40 percent accurate at 130nm and do not support volume operation, dynamic diagnostics, customizable fault modeling, or vectors generated by other ATPG tools, explained Cadence. Encounter Diagnostics was developed specifically to accelerate nanometer yield in production manufacturing environments. In volume mode, the tool identifies the most critical design-related issues based on analyzing a statistically significant sample size. In precision mode, it precisely locates the root cause defects, which can then be verified in a physical failure analysis lab.

"Combining Encounter Diagnostics' advanced precision capabilities with our EmiScope time-resolved emission microscope provides joint customers with a very effective method of locating nanometer defects," said Dr. Israel Niv, president for Credence's Diagnostics and Characterization Group.

Paul Estrada, GM of Encounter Test for Cadence Design Systems, added, "Encounter Diagnostics provides a proven system for quickly finding the root cause of the most critical design-related issues."