Design-manufacturing interface for 0.13 micron and below

Over the years, the increase in IC functionality has been achieved by a continuous drive towards smaller feature sizes. Due to the decreasing dimensions of semiconductor structures, the sensitivity to critical design and manufacturing parameters has risen dramatically. Vertical integration techniques and multi-level interconnect, which are becoming more common in modern technologies, have driven up the number of critical processing steps to several hundreds. These trends are expected to continue for the next several decades. The .13 micron technology is around the corner, as well as 300mm wafers. The increase in IC functionality has come with a skyrocketing capital spending (more than $2 billion per fabrication facility). Moreover, the product life cycles for leading edge IC's have become very short (less than 2 years).