IMEC transfers embedded SRAM design-for-manufacturing tool to Samsung Electronics

Leuven, Belgium – April 21, 2009 – IMEC has successfully transferred
MemoryVAM (Memory Variability Aware Modeling), the first EDA tool for
statistical memory analysis, to Samsung Electronics. The tool predicts
yield loss of SRAMs caused by the process variations of deep-submicron IC
technologies.

IMEC’s MemoryVAM is an essential tool to avoid already at design time the
most likely reasons for failure, anticipating and correcting weak design
spots before tape-out, and hence avoiding redesign spins after processing.
The tool also provides key help to memory and system designers to estimate
yield loss due to changes of for example cycle time, access time and power
consumption (static/dynamic) caused by process variations.

“With MemoryVAM IMEC completes a missing steppingstone in industrial and
academic state-of-the-art Design-For-Manufacturing flows which lacked such
modeling capabilities for memories;” said Rudy Lauwereins, Vice President
Smart Systems Technology Office at IMEC. “This is especially interesting
for embedded SRAMs, which are considered to be the most sensitive component
to process variations of today’s systems-on-chip. We are excited that the
tool is now being successfully used by the product engineering design teams
at Samsung Electronics.”

“With collaboration with IMEC, a new novel statistical analysis tool
MemoryVAM has become available in our embedded SRAM design.” said Kyu-Myung
Choi, Vice President of Design Technology Team at Samsung Electronics. “We
expect that MemoryVAM will be helpful for parametric yield modeling of
embedded SRAM design and for understanding the unknown gap between design
and silicon results due to process variability in deep sub-micron
technology below 45nm.”

MemoryVAM is part of IMEC’s Variability Aware Modeling (VAM) flow which is
the first holistic flow capable of percolating process variations all the
way from the process technology up to the System on a Chip (SoC) level. VAM
enables to track the reasons for yield loss and the relative likelihood of
such failure. Unlike most of the statistical analysis techniques, VAM is
unique in its kind by accurately keeping track of all statistical process,
design and environmental correlations tightly linked together and across
abstraction levels.

MemoryVAM builds on IMEC’s revolutionary method to analyze performance
metrics of semiconductor memories under process variations. The method
requires mainly three input items. The first is a transistor level netlist
description of a segment of the memory describing all circuitry involved
from input to output. The second one is a set of parameters describing the
internal architecture of the memory, thus how the memory is built from the
segment information, including redundancy and error correction code
infrastructure. The third one is information about the variability of the
devices and interconnects used in the underlying technology. This
information can be provided in either the form of statistical distributions
of certain transistor parameters, scattered data obtained via statistical
simulation of the device or just plain data set obtained via silicon
measurements.

The power of MemoryVAM lies in the analysis of parameters of the memory
that can be directly embedded in the input netlist by the designer. These
are then used to carry out the implementation of the method, without
requiring additional custom modeling steps from the user. The key to this
strategy is the ability to complement the analysis of a nominal memory
model under test with statistically sampled variants of the devices. This
is done by using an in-house developed statistically enhanced Monte Carlo
technique, although it also allows the usage of any other available
enhanced sampling technique. With this novel and fast analytical technique,
statistical information on the critical path percolates to the complete
SRAM organization level, resulting in a realistic prediction of the yield
as perceived by the memory tester and/or equivalent BIST
(built-in-self-testing) technique.

The news release and an illustration can be downloaded at:
http://www2.imec.be/imec_com/imec-transferred-design-for-manufacturing-tool
-for-embedded-srams-to-samsung-electronics.php?year=2009&month=04

About IMEC
IMEC is a world-leading independent research center in nanoelectronics and
nanotechnology. IMEC vzw is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, has a sister
company in the Netherlands, IMEC-NL, offices in the US, China and Taiwan,
and representatives in Japan. Its staff of more than 1650 people includes
about 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, its revenue
(P&L) was estimated to EUR 270 million.
IMEC’s More Moore research aims at semiconductor scaling towards 22nm and
beyond. With its More than Moore research, IMEC looks into technologies for
nomadic embedded systems, wireless autonomous transducer solutions,
biomedical electronics, photovoltaics, organic electronics and GaN power
electronics.
IMEC’s research bridges the gap between fundamental research at
universities and technology development in industry. Its unique balance of
processing and system know-how, intellectual property portfolio,
state-of-the-art infrastructure and its strong network worldwide position
IMEC as a key partner for shaping technologies for future systems.
Further information on IMEC can be found at www.imec.be.

About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor,
telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with
2007 consolidated sales of US$105 billion. Employing approximately 150,000
people in 134 offices in 62 countries, the company consists of two main
business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions.
Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics
is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and
TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

IMEC Contacts:
Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80,
Mobile : +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent {at} imec(.)be

Barbara Kalkis, Maestro Marketing & PR, T: +1 408 996 9975,
kkalkis {at} compuserve(.)com