Synopsys, Inc.

Terry Sylvan Kam-Chiu Ma

Victor Moroz

Stephen Lee Smith

Yong-Seog Oh

Michael C Shaughnessy-Culver

Jie Liu

Pratheep Balasingam

Xi-Wei Lin

Qiang Lu

Karim El Sayed

Roughly described, a task control system for managing multi-scale simulations receives a case/task list which identifies cases to be evaluated, at least one task for each of the cases, and dependencies among the tasks. A module allocates available processor cores to at least some of the tasks, constrained by the dependencies, and initiates execution of the tasks on allocated cores. A module, in response to completion of a particular one of the tasks, determines whether or not the result of the task warrants stopping or pruning tasks, and if so, then terminates or prunes one or more of the uncompleted tasks in the case/task list. A module also re-allocates available processor cores to pending not-yet-executing tasks in accordance with time required to complete the tasks and constrained by the dependencies, and initiates execution of the tasks on allocated cores.

Adaptive parallelization for multi-scale simulation

An electronic design automation tool includes an application program interface API which includes a set of parameters and procedures supporting atomistic scale modeling of electronic materials. The procedures include a procedure to execute first principles calculations, a procedure to process results from the first principles calculations to extract device scale parameters from the results, a procedure to determine whether the extracted device scale parameters lie within a specified range. The procedures also include a procedure to parameterize an input parameter of a first principles procedure, including a procedure to execute a set of DFT computations across an input parameter space to characterize sensitivity of one of the intermediate parameter and the output parameter. Also included is a procedure to execute a second set of DFT computations across a refined input parameter space. The procedures include a procedure that utilizes DFT computations to parameterize the force field computations.

First principles design automation tool

Electronic design automation modules for simulate the behavior of structures and materials at multiple simulation scales with different simulation modules.

Simulation scaling with DFT and non-DFT

A system for evaluating candidate materials for fabrication of integrated circuits includes a data processor coupled to a memory. Roughly described, the data processor is configured to: calculate and write to a first database, for each of a plurality of candidate materials, values for each property in a set of intermediate properties; calculate and write to a second database, values for a selected target property for various combinations of values for the intermediate properties and values describing candidate environments; and for a particular candidate material and a particular environment in combination, determine values for the intermediate properties for the candidate material by reference to the first database, and determine the value of the target property for the candidate material by querying the second database with, in combination, (1) the determined intermediate property values of the candidate material and (2) a value or values describing the particular environment.

Mapping intermediate material properties to target properties to screen materials

Electronic design automation modules include a first tool and a second tool. The first tool includes ab initio simulation procedures configured to use input parameters to produce information about a band structure of a simulated material on a first simulation scale specified at least in part by the input parameters. The second tool includes a simulation procedure configured to used information about the band structure of the simulated material produced by the first tool to extract parameters on a second simulation scale larger than the first simulation scale.

Multi-scale simulation including first principles band structure extraction

Roughly described, a technique for approximating a target property of a target material is provided. For each material in a plurality of anchor materials, a correspondence is provided between the value for a predetermined index property of the material and a value for the target property of the material, the values of all the index properties being different. A predictor function is identified in dependence upon the correspondence. A computer system determines a value for the target property for the target material in dependence upon the predictor function and a value for the index property for the target material. The determined value for the target property for the target material is reported to a user. The correspondence can be provided in a database on a non-transitory computer readable medium. The correspondence can be determined experimentally or analytically for each material in a plurality of anchor materials.

Characterizing target material properties based on properties of similar materials

An electronic design automation tool includes an application program interface API. The API includes a set of parameters and procedures supporting atomistic scale modeling of electronic materials. The procedures include a procedure to execute first principles calculations, a procedure to process results from the first principles calculations to extract device scale parameters from the results, and a procedure to determine whether the device scale parameters extracted from the results lie within a specified range of the stored information for the material. The procedures also include a procedure to parameterize an input parameter of a first principles procedure, including a procedure to execute a set of DFT computations across an input parameter space to characterize sensitivity of one of the intermediate parameter and the output parameter. Also included is a procedure to execute a second set of DFT computations across a refined input parameter space. Additional procedures include a first atomistic scale procedure to produce a set of preliminary configurations for the specified material, and a second atomistic scale procedure that utilizes DFT computations to refine the preliminary configurations and to produce the parameter set using refined configurations. The procedures include a procedure that utilizes DFT computations to parameterize the force field computations.

Roughly described, a method for developing a set of design rules for a fabrication process in development includes, for each of several candidate DRUTs for the fabrication process, laying our a logic cell based on the DRUT, the logic cell having at least one transistor and at least one interconnect, simulating fabrication of the logic cell according to the fabrication process and the layout, simulating behavior of the logic cell structure, including characterizing the combined behavior of both the first transistor and the first interconnect, evaluating performance of the logic cell structure in dependence upon the behavior as characterized, and recording in a database, in association with an indication of the DRUT, values indicating performance of the logic cell. The database can be used to select the best DRUT for the fabrication process.

Pre-silicon design rule evaluation

Electronic design automation to simulate the behavior of structures and materials at multiple simulation scales with different simulators.

Growing community of inventors

Danville, CA, United States of America

Terry Sylvan Kam-Chiu Ma