How to get an ASIC made?

Key Takeaways

• Understand your design requirements: Define the specific functionality, performance, and cost targets of your ASIC.

• Choose the right foundry: Research and select a foundry that aligns with your design requirements and manufacturing capabilities.

• Create an ASIC design: Develop a detailed design that meets your specifications, using industry-standard tools and methodologies.

• Prepare for fabrication: Generate fabrication files, including masks, GDSII files, and other necessary documentation.

• Fabricate the ASIC: Submit your design files to the foundry for manufacturing. This process involves wafer fabrication, packaging, and testing.

• Verify and validate the ASIC: Conduct comprehensive testing and verification to ensure the ASIC meets your design intent and specifications.

How to Get an ASIC Made

Understanding Your Design Requirements

1. Define the ASIC’s functionality: Determine the specific tasks and operations that the ASIC should perform. 2. Specify the performance targets: Establish the desired speed, power consumption, and other performance metrics for the ASIC. 3. Determine the cost constraints: Set a budget for the ASIC development and manufacturing process. 4. Research industry standards: Familiarize yourself with common ASIC design methodologies and best practices. 5. Consider design for testability: Plan for efficient and effective testing of the ASIC during the design phase. 6. Review existing solutions: Explore whether pre-existing ASICs or design IP can meet your requirements.

Choosing the Right Foundry

1. Evaluate foundry capabilities: Assess the foundry’s experience, process technologies, and ability to meet your design specifications. 2. Consider cost and lead times: Compare the foundry’s pricing and production schedules to ensure alignment with your project timeframe and budget. 3. Check for technical support: Ensure the foundry provides adequate technical support throughout the design and manufacturing process. 4. Review quality and reliability data: Analyze the foundry’s track record for quality control and device reliability. 5. Establish a collaboration plan: Define the communication channels, design reviews, and other aspects of the collaboration with the foundry. 6. Negotiate the foundry agreement: Finalize the terms of the collaboration, including pricing, delivery timelines, and intellectual property rights.

Creating an ASIC Design

1. Choose design tools and methodologies: Select the appropriate EDA tools and design methodologies based on your design requirements. 2. Develop the ASIC architecture: Define the high-level architecture of the ASIC, including blocks, interconnections, and interfaces. 3. Implement the circuit design: Translate the ASIC architecture into detailed circuit designs using HDL (Hardware Description Language). 4. Perform design simulations: Validate the functionality and performance of the design through simulations using industry-standard tools. 5. Optimize the design: Iteratively improve the design to meet performance and cost targets. 6. Generate the GDSII files: Create the final design files in GDSII format, which are used for mask generation and fabrication.

Preparing for Fabrication

1. Prepare the mask set: Generate the mask set based on the GDSII files, specifying the patterns for each fabrication layer. 2. Conduct design rule checking: Verify that the design meets the foundry’s design rules to ensure manufacturability. 3. Generate fabrication documentation: Prepare the necessary documentation, including test plans, assembly instructions, and quality assurance procedures. 4. Package the ASIC: Design and specify the packaging for the ASIC, considering form factor, thermal management, and pinout. 5. Submit the design to the foundry: Submit the complete design package to the foundry for fabrication. 6. Monitor the fabrication process: Track the progress of ASIC fabrication and address any issues that arise during the process.

Fabricating the ASIC

1. Wafer fabrication: The foundry manufactures the ASIC on silicon wafers using processes such as lithography, etching, and deposition. 2. Wafer testing: The foundry performs wafer-level testing to identify and eliminate defective dies. 3. Die packaging: The ASIC dies are packaged into individual units to protect them from the environment. 4. Final testing: The packaged ASICs undergo final testing to verify their functionality and performance. 5. Delivery of ASICs: The fabricated ASICs are delivered to you according to the agreed-upon schedule. 6. Quality assurance: Implement a quality assurance process to ensure the reliability and performance of the fabricated ASICs.

Verifying and Validating the ASIC

1. Functional testing: Conduct comprehensive functional testing to verify that the ASIC performs as intended. 2. Performance testing: Measure the ASIC’s performance against the specified targets, including speed, power consumption, and accuracy. 3. Environmental testing: Subject the ASIC to various environmental conditions to assess its robustness and reliability. 4. System integration testing: Test the ASIC in the intended system environment to ensure compatibility and functionality. 5. Failure analysis: Investigate and analyze any failures or issues that occur during testing to identify root causes and improve design and manufacturing processes. 6. Documentation: Create comprehensive documentation covering the design, testing, and validation results of the ASIC.