Semiconductor Design Resources

By Dr. Steve O'Neil, N'Fusion, Inc.

Even though the semiconductor market is in another of its recurring dips, designers continue to push for new capabilities and higher throughput in anticipation of a late-year recovery. On the up side, this provides many designers with the luxury of being able to dig into some of the background work which has been performed over the past five years to provide them with competitive intelligence and new benchmarks.

The Semiconductor Subway maps various subgroups of links

One of the best sources which I have used for many years is The Semiconductor Subway at http://www-mtl.mit.edu/semisubway.html. Housed at and maintained by the MIT Microsystems Technologies Laboratories, the home page provides a graphically pleasing and clean "subway map" which visitors can use to access the main "branches" of the line: conferences, VLSI, MEMS, fabrication, CIM, groups, and TCAD. Going to other "transfer points" provides surfers with even more access through connecting lines. Clicking on "Laboratories," for example, provides access to The Laboratories Subway (http://www-mtl.mit.edu/semisubway/fabs_subway.html). From here users can access 39 university fab facilities, plus foundries and manufacturing research resources. The site is updated by various individuals on an as-needed basis.

If your interests lie more in the process and analytical manufacturing realm, a good site for you to check out is The Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Human Resources Project at http://violet.berkeley.edu/~iir/research/csm-hr/. This is part of the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley. The "Second Interim Report," although published in 1996, provides an extensive survey of findings in the manufacturing sector based on numerous interviews and questionnaire initiatives. Many of these conclusions are still relevant to work being undertaken today. Some of the benchmarking sections include innovative HR policies and work practices, turnover, training, appraisal and promotion, applicability to other firms, and statistical tools for industry data. A "Program Update" is also available for download as a .pdf file. Included is a summary of the benchmarking participants (aggregated), individual performance benchmarking points, printable graphs of line yield, defect density (CMOS process flows), etc. Other reports cover supplementary and updated work through the fall of 2000. Access a complete index of reports (about 50 in all through October, 2000) at http://esrc.berkeley.edu/csm/csmreports.html.

An interesting new site for designers is Modu-Lab located at http://www.modu-lab.org. This is one of the new genre of sites alluded to in previous articles whereby collective experiences are moved online for collaborative exploitation. This site acts as a clearinghouse for educators, students, and professionals in the field of microfabrication. Users can download experiments and exercises, post ideas and comments, and link to companies that supply fabrication materials. Some of the resources include mask libraries, a manual library (for equipment operation, maintenance, and repair of machinery), the experiment library (photolithography), and the exercise library (now in the process of being set up). There are also links to colleges and universities, process and safety resources, and chemicals and supplies. You need to register in order to access the download materials.

I guess life in this day and age wouldn't be complete without also taking a look at the emerging "marketplace" phenomenon. There are currently half a dozen sites that cater to the semiconductor marketplace with varying degrees of effort and success. The overwhelming impression one gets in evaluating these resources is that they are still works in progress. Some tilt their pitch to purchasing and marketing types, while other attempt to address management and design concerns. Each seems to be taking slightly divergent paths in the quest to be "your #1 destination" for information and products in this niche.

Link2Semiconductor.com is community-oriented

Design and Reuse at http://www.design-reuse.com/ bills itself as a B-2-B (business-to-business) marketplace for silicon IP exchange. Users can register for a free password to access the "Development Tool Catalog" and join the "D&R Community." The "Marketspace" section contains reference links to new catalogs, design tools, and a system prototyping catalog. There is also a tool to configure a system-on-chip design. The site also has news and design workshop summaries, as well as feature articles on industry trends and design matters. They also have a "Bluetooth Developer Center." The "Catalog" allows users to access the "Yellow Pages" listing tools ranging from high-level design to layout optimization. Links to these software tool providers are included. The Configurator appears to be a first step in providing designers with step-by-step templates to select processors, compatible SIPs, embedded software, development tools, and "expertise."

Link2Semiconductor.com at http://link2semiconductor.com/ offers a weekly newsletter, allows company supplier listings, news, and some tutorials. They are also pushing the "community" concept. The focus of their trading efforts are in the equipment area (buy and sell), as well as featuring their "partner" relationship with KeyAssets.com, a co-branded trading exchange. Design and manufacturing engineers should find some of the tutorials useful, but the remainder of the content is heavily skewed towards investing, press releases, and sponsorships.

Semiconbay at http://www.semiconbay.com describes itself as an "open marketplace" with news sections, a career center, some external resource links, and technology pages. Their links to industry Web sites focus primarily on engineering trade publications, although there are a few design resource links. The revenue approach here is promoting and selling reference materials, spare parts and consumables, cleanroom supplies, etc. Their supplier lists, however, are small and are comprised mostly of one company per category. Technology pages have some useful material in the areas of lithography, CMP, etching, thin films, and more. Links are included to editorials, featured abstracts, and some useful technical white papers. The "Patents Updates" is also a nice feature. Webcasts on semiconductor topics can also be accessed. Their Japanese resource link was not working on my visits.

Semiconductor Online at http://www.semiconductoronline.com is another of the many VerticalNet^® Marketplace sites which have been set up for almost any industry imaginable. The approach here, however, is on buying and selling and on promoting products which companies pay to have featured on the site. The "community" atmosphere is strong here and the chances of finding useful information which might take you off the SO site is slight. There are some news features and articles, but the supplier links are thin and the 3 other topical and 2 geographic "related sites" links point only to other VerticalNet^® properties.

Steve O'Neil, Ph.D. is President of N'Fusion, Inc., an editorial and Internet consultancy which aids technology companies in integrating their print and online strategies, improving advertising and branding accountability, and building end-to-end e-commerce solutions. The company is headquartered in the Tampa Bay, FL area with offices and affiliates throughout the US, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Steve can be reached at stephenjo@earthlink.net or 727-742-9169.