Design-for-manufacturing features in nanometer processes - A reverse engineering perspective

The first decade of the new millennium has seen the introduction of a suite of production disciplines known collectively as design for manufacturability (DFM). While there has been no formal definition of DFM, we can regard it broadly as the techniques used to co-optimise design, layout, and processing to reduce variability and improve manufacturing parameters, with the aim of increasing yield and reliability. Retrospectively, we can view design rule checking, and the dummy features used to improve CMP, as early forms of DFM.