Industry veterans join forces for DFM space

Introducing DFM Challenger ­ Aprio Technologies Industry veterans join forces to bring fresh ideas to DFM space.

Aprio Technologies is a new entrant into the EDA space.

 With more than 60 companies promising DFM tools and solutions, the market is certainly not without contenders. But, according to Aprio, a fresh new approach to the problem is needed, and they intend to provide it. Aprio (pronounced AY pree oh) has formally announced its formation and funding, as well as the strategic technology direction they are taking to DFM.

Founded in January of 2003 by industry veterans Dr Clive Wu and Daniel Ho, and joined in December of that year by Randy Smith, Aprio has been in stealth mode as it undertook research and development. Earlier this summer, with products nearing completion, Aprio completed a second round of funding, securing investment from El Dorado Ventures, Mobius Venture Partners and Goldman Sachs. Total funds raised exceed $10 million. Tom Peterson of El Dorado Ventures and Aaron Cheatham of Mobius Venture Partners join the two founders on the company's board of directors.

Previously, Dr Clive Wu, CEO and CTO for Aprio, was engineering vice president at Numerical Technologies, leading much of the company's product development through to its IPO in 2000. Wu received his PhD from Stanford University and has authored more than ten patents on resolution enhancement technology (RET) and DFM. He is also an expert in convex optimization.

EDA veteran Daniel Ho is Aprio's co-founder and vice president of engineering and operations. He was a founding member of Ambit Design Systems and held positions at Valid Logic and Cadence Design Systems. Ho has extensive experience in software development and deployment.

Randy Smith, vice president of sales and marketing, was co-author of the business plan for and a founding member of Tangent Systems, later acquired by Cadence. Smith has many years experience in EDA, holding executive positions at TriMedia Technologies, Artisan Components, Gambit Automated Design, and Celestry Technologies since his departure from Cadence in 1994.

The DFM Gap: It took the smallest process technologies, 90nm and below, to illuminate the large information gap that exists between design and manufacturing. With nanometer technology, process effects have a significant ­ and seemingly unpredictable ­ impact on a chip's performance. To address this, manufacturers have begun aggressively applying resolution enhancement technology (RET). At 90nm, current RET tools can take weeks to run for each design. With a 65nm implementation, these numbers could escalate into months. In addition, the data volume generated is growing larger and more cumbersome. Furthermore, with each mask respin, the process starts over, further delaying time-to-market and reducing ROI.

To reduce non-recurring engineering costs and maximize ROI and yield, new DFM tools must solve run-time and complexity problems, and provide manufacturing closure. These new tools must also be able to efficiently handle mask respins and incremental design changes (ECOs), which is not the case with today's DFM tools. Building its products with these issues in mind, Aprio is developing a platform that will link design and manufacturing, provide RET closure and accommodate mask respins.

"There are lots of companies in the DFM area, and more coming all the time, that are essentially trying to fix things on the design side," said Wu. "We are looking at DFM differently by first solving the critical manufacturing issues that delay getting products successfully to market. At the same time our platform will allow manufacturers to begin sharing process information with designers. Aprio is going to close the gap between design and manufacturing uncovered by nanometer designs." There are several categories of DFM tools including layout modification tools for yield enhancement, RET strategy tools (which preprocess information for mask data preparation tools), RET generators, verifiers, and fracturing tools. Aprio is first focusing on the RET generation and verification problems in order to provide manufacturers with an easier and faster path to closure on an RET solution, and also preserves the intent of the design.

 "It's time for a new generation of DFM tools to come forward to solve the intractable challenges manufacturers are facing," said Smith. "The problem is broader and deeper now, and a fresh approach is needed ­ look for Aprio to deliver it soon.".

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