Package verification just took a big step forward…
By Armen Asatryan and John Ferguson
Over a decade ago, Calibre Design Solutions moved early into defining and building physical verification solutions for advanced package design. The Calibre 3DSTACK tool was built with the intent to perform circuit and layout verification on multi-die assemblies in a way that enabled heterogeneous die processes to co-exist without significant impact to the rule deck, without relying on manual layout merging, and without requiring tedious effort to create pseudo-devices to differentiate die pins. In recognition of its innovative technology, the Calibre 3DSTACK tool received the prestigious 3D InCites award for best 3D Design Tool.
Later, through integration with Siemens’ Xpedition Substrate Integrator (XSI) tool, the package physical verification solution significantly improved its ease-of-use. The XSI tool contains an easy-to-use GUI that enables designers to define connectivity across the assembly. From this definition, the XSI tool can generate a corresponding source netlist for comparison to the final assembly. It can even automate the verification process!
Now we’re expanding the capabilities of our tools yet again to ensure the fastest and easiest path to full assembly physical verification. The Calibre 3DSTACK tool now provides design teams instant feedback for common set-up issues, as well as source netlist syntax issues. Enhanced checks more clearly and accurately identify misaligned pins. Mimicking the early design verification capabilities of our powerful Calibre nmDRC Recon tool for IC layouts, the Calibre 3DSTACK tool also incorporates a fast and easy check for power-ground shorts. All of these enhancements can significantly reduce both the number of iterations and the time required to resolve package design issues, minimizing total time to completion.
For all the details, read or download a copy of our technical paper, Taking 2.5D/3DIC physical verification to the next level.
