Statistical IC process and product simulation using STADIUM

Abstract

The software program called STADIUM has been developed by researchers at Florida Institute of Technologj (Florida Tech) through funding from SEMATECH. The purpose of STADIUM is to facilitate the Statistical design and simulation of integrated circuit processes, devices and products. It is a software shell which uses existing simulators in a design of experiments statistical methodology and allows the estimation of the statistical response of the manufacturing environment. This paper presents some of the methodo~ogy and implementation details of STADIUM.The overall goal of the Florida Tech STADIUM project is to provide a software system to American electronics industry which will allow engineers to statistically simulate integrated circuit processes, devices and circuits. This system should be useful to both manufacturing and design engineers and should work with a wide variety of simulators. STADIUM employs a design of experiments statistical methodology which reduces the amount of simulation time required (relative 10 Monte Carlo methods) and provides an understanding of the relationship between circuit output parameters and manufacturing process variation. Therefore, STADIUM addresses the need for design for manufacturability as well as allowing design space exploration.