Synopsys has joined the French semiconductor research centre CEA-Leti's programme to develop maskless lithography for IC manufacturing.
Maskless lithography has emerged as a contender for extending IC manufacturing to technology nodes below 15nm.
"The IMAGINE programme brings together leaders from all areas of IC manufacturing in the assessment and deployment of this technology,” said Fabio Angelillis, vice president engineering of the Silicon Engineering Group at Synopsys.
“Synopsys is pleased to contribute its technology leadership in mask tools, including mask synthesis and mask data preparation, to help drive effective software solutions for the IMAGINE programme,” said Angelillis.
The design tool firm joins nine other companies in the programme called IMAGINE, which was launched in July 2009 with the delivery of a massively parallel electron beam platform by Mapper Lithography to Leti.
The programme will provide chip manufacturers with the opportunity to assess maskless lithography technology in a real manufacturing environment. In addition, it will develop and qualify the complete infrastructure, from data preparation to process integration, in preparation for its industrial introduction in 2015.
“One of the key points for the ML2 technology is the ability to handle very large data files, and we will need to quickly establish the proper data format standard,” said Serge Tedesco, CEA-Leti programme manager.
www.leti.fr
