Development of an Embedded Process Detector Circuit Targeting Advanced CMOS Semiconductor Technologies

Moortec半导体有限公司为采用当今电子产品中使用的先进技术制造的硅芯片设备开发片上监控电路和知识产权(IP)。Moortec计划开发一种嵌入式工艺检测器电路原型，也称为工艺监测器，该电路将测量在28纳米(Nm)、16 nm和14 nm等先进CMOS技术节点上制造的电路的可变性。随着硅CMOS技术的进步和晶体管沟道长度达到纳米尺寸，工艺引起的电路延迟变化已经开始显著影响芯片的性能和功耗。Moortec的工艺探测器(PD)将具有超出半导体设备设计者和开发者目前商业可用范围的特性和应用。PD将允许硅芯片自行确定其自己的制造工艺特征，向系统的其余部分提供如何优化其性能的信息。然后，片上系统(SoC)可以针对其功耗或计算或数据传输的速度进行优化。PD还将允许系统测量和监控所有硅器件所受的老化影响，可能是在器件的整个生命周期内。

Moortec Semiconductor Ltd develop on-chip monitoring circuits and intellectual property (IP) for silicon chip devices manufactured on advanced technologies used in today’s electronics products. Moortec plan to develop a prototype embedded process detector circuit, otherwise known as a process monitor, that will measure the variability of circuits manufactured on advanced CMOS technology nodes such as 28 nano-meter (nm), 16nm and 14nm. With advances in silicon CMOS technology and the scaling of transistor channel lengths to nanometer dimensions, process induced variations in circuit delays have begun to significantly impact chip performance and power consumption. Moortec’s Process Detector (PD) will possess features and address applications that go beyond what is currently commercially available to the designers and developers of semiconductor devices. The PD will allow a silicon chip to self-determine its own manufactured process characteristics, providing information to the rest of the system as to how its performance can be optimised. The System on Chip (SoC) can then be optimised for either its power consumption or its speed for computations or data transfer. The PD will also allow for the ageing effects, which all silicon devices are subjected to, to be measured and monitored by the system, potentially throughout the lifetime of the device.