David Abercrombie

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David Abercrombie is the marketing director for Calibre multi-patterning, machine-learning, and licensing applications at Siemens EDA, a part of Siemens Digital Industries Software. Abercrombie drives the roadmap for developing new and enhanced EDA tools to solve the growing challenges in advanced physical verification and design for manufacturing (DFM). Prior to joining Siemens, Abercrombie managed yield enhancement programs in semiconductor manufacturing at multiple companies. He is extensively published in papers and patents on semiconductor processing, yield enhancement, and physical verification. Abercrombie received his BSEE from Clemson University, and his MSEE from North Carolina State University.

Author's Latest Posts

The Trouble With Triples—Part 1
By David Abercrombie - 14 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

If you’re a true geek like me, you may remember the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” about the cute furry little aliens that purr when you pet them. They seemed so nice and friendly on the surface, but in the end, they became an exponentially growing mass of ravenous monsters that almost broke down the ship and consumed the storehouse of grain that was meant to provide human... » read more

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
By David Abercrombie - 19 Sep, 2013 - Comments: 1

I’ve been talking about double patterning for a long time now in this series of blogs. I thought it might be good to start looking ahead at what is next for multi-patterning (Don’t Panic!). As you may have been hearing or reading, it doesn’t look like EUV lithography is going to be ready for 10nm, and may not even make it for 7nm. This means that alternative methods of extending the exist... » read more

You Can’t Get There From Here
By David Abercrombie - 17 Jul, 2013 - Comments: 0

By David Abercrombie In my last article, I reviewed the aspects of cell design that are affected by double patterning (DP). This time, I’ll discuss how automatic routing is affected by DP. Let’s begin by looking at the interaction between decisions made at the cell design level and decisions made at the routing level. One key routing decision is whether or not you will allow cell-to-cel... » read more

Between A Rock And A Hard Place
By David Abercrombie - 16 May, 2013 - Comments: 0

By David Abercrombie My previous articles included a lot of discussion about correcting error violations in double patterning (DP). This time let’s take a step back up the design flow. DP requires a design team to make some important decisions about standard cell design methodologies, or risk running into serious placement issues down the line. Understanding why this is so, and what your opt... » read more

Chasing Rabbits
By David Abercrombie - 21 Mar, 2013 - Comments: 0

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” —Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass By David Abercrombie As I discussed in my previous article, the use of stitching can greatly reduce the number of double patterning (DP) decomposition violations that a designer ... » read more

Hospital Privileges
By David Abercrombie - 24 Jan, 2013 - Comments: 0

By David Abercrombie In our double patterning (DP) conversations so far, we’ve discussed what it means to decompose a single layer into two masks, and identified typical configurations of polygons that can cause DP violations. We specifically discussed the most common odd cycle violations, and how to fix them by increasing the spaces between polygons. The reality, though, is that no matter h... » read more

Why Do My DP Colors Keep Changing?
By David Abercrombie - 15 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By David Abercrombie At 20nm, foundries are using several different double patterning design flows. One of the more common flows does not actually require the design team to decompose their layers into two colors. The designer only has to verify that the design can be decomposed before taping out each single layer. There are certain obvious advantages to this flow. For example, the designer do... » read more

Double Patterning: Challenges And Possible Solutions In Parasitics Extraction
By David Abercrombie - 16 Aug, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Dusan Petranovic and David Abercrombie Double patterning (DP), as the simplest form of multi-patterning techniques, is receiving lots of attention right now. The need for double patterning techniques is driven by the physical limits of the dimensions that can be resolved with current light sources and lenses, as well as by the difficulties and delays in deploying next-generation lithography... » read more

Monsters, Inc.: How Do I Fix These Double Patterning Errors Anyway?
By David Abercrombie - 29 Jun, 2012 - Comments: 0

By David Abercrombie Just mention double patterning (DP) to designers, and you can see the fear in their eyes. There is real trepidation about what kind of monster DP design debugging will be. In this article, I hope to alleviate some of that trepidation by educating you on manual correction techniques, automated fixing hints, and automated fixing capabilities you can adopt to help you with DP... » read more

Anchors Away – Anchoring and Seeding in Double Pattern Design.
By David Abercrombie - 02 May, 2012 - Comments: 0

David Abercrombie Many aspects of how double patterning (DP) affects the designer depend on the methodology used and the level of control the designer wants. One extreme in methodology and control is full two-layer design, in which the designer decomposes the entire design and tapes out two masks. The designer has complete control of the coloring, but all the responsibility and work as well. T... » read more

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