International Business Machines Corporation

Terry M Lowe

Norbert George Vogl

Mark Steven Styduhar

Jeanne P S Bickford

Lijiang L Wang

Anand Kumaraswamy

James Robert Montstream

Limin Miao

James V Crouse

Colleen A Wyckoff

In one embodiment, at least one design library element having a design marker shape is applied to a yield checking tool having library element types, each having a yield checking deck threshold and a marker shape. The design marker shape is compared to each of the marker shapes. A determination is made as to whether the design library element satisfies the yield checking deck threshold associated with the library element type having a matching marker shape. In another embodiment, a product design formed from a design library elements each having a design marker shape is applied to the yield checking tool in a similar manner. In instances where the design library elements do not satisfy the yield checking deck threshold, then the design library element is updated by modifying the design library elements, placement of the design library elements in the product design, and/or wiring connecting the design library elements.

Yield optimization for design library elements at library element level or at product level

A system and method for automatically creating testcases for design rule checking comprises first creating a table with a design rule number, a description, and the values from a design rule manual. Next, any design specific options are derived that affect the flow of the design rule checking, including back end of the line stack options. Then, the design rule values and any design specific options (including back end of the line stack options) are extracted into testcases. Next, the testcases are organized such that there is one library with a plurality of root cells, further comprising one root cell for checking all rules pertaining to the front end of the line, and another root cell for checking design specific options including back end of the line stack options. Finally, the DRC runset is run against the testcases to determine if the DRC runset provides for design rule checking.

Method for comprehensively verifying design rule checking runsets

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Apex, NC, United States of America

Terry M Lowe