A multi-technology-process reticle floorplanner and wafer dicing planner for multi-project wafers

As the VLSI manufacturing technology advances into the deep sub-micron (DSM) era, the mask cost can reach one or two million dollars. Multiple project wafers (MPW) which put different dies onto the same set of masks is a good cost-sharing approach. Every design needs to be produced by its desired technology process, such as 1 poly with 4 metal layers (1P4M), or 1 poly with 5 metal layers (1P5M). Dies with different desired manufacturing processes cannot be produced from the same wafer, but they can be put onto the same set of masks in order to reduce the total cost of the used masks and wafers. In this paper, we propose a novel integer linear programming (ILP)-based floorplanner for shuttle runs consisting of projects requiring different desired processes. Two simulated annealing-based side-to-side wafer dicing planners are also presented. Experimental results show that our approach achieves 28% wafer reduction on average compared to a previous simulated annealing-based reticle floorplanner.