SAN JOSE, Calif., March 30, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Magma® Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design software, today announced Excalibur-Litho™, a complete fab analysis framework that supports the development and monitoring of advanced lithography solutions. Excalibur-Litho is the first system to efficiently integrate design and real-time data from the semiconductor manufacturing floor, including defectivity, metrology and tool history, enabling an unmatched level of data analysis, monitoring and process control. Excalibur-Litho optimizes yield ramps with built-in solutions for litho qualification through the proprietary coupling of design-based binning, electrical cross mapping, and fab-wide data correlation. This enables unprecedented defect isolation and root cause analysis.
"Excalibur-Litho is based on a proven fab analysis framework that provides comprehensive examination of inline lithography-based defects," said Ankush Oberai, general manager and vice president of Magma's Fab Analysis Business Unit. "By leveraging a proven infrastructure that has access to both design and fab data, Excalibur-Litho turns data into knowledge, accelerating lithography-based process improvement."
Magma and Applied Materials, Inc. announced on Feb. 28 a collaborative effort to integrate Magma's CAD-based navigation and yield analysis software, which includes Excalibur-Litho, with Applied Materials' advanced inspection tools, such as the Applied UVision™ 4 system. "This unique combination of design and manufacturing tools has accelerated lithography qualification and enabled quicker yield ramp at multiple customers for the development and production of advanced technology nodes," said Erez Paran, manager, Integrated Solutions for Applied Materials' Process Diagnostics and Control business unit.
Excalibur-Litho: From Data to Knowledge
Excalibur-Litho collects and organizes data from the manufacturing process, including defectivity, metrology, electrical tools and manufacturing execution system (MES) data. Wafer information is stacked and easily cross-mapped to any one of the layout, schematic or netlist design representations for easy analysis.
Excalibur-Litho is built on a revolutionary open-architecture database developed by Magma that enables safe and secured CAD access and easy fab integration. This open architecture also ensures interoperability with most inspection tools and yield analysis databases.
About Magma
Top semiconductor makers worldwide use Magma's electronic design automation (EDA) software to produce chips for electronic applications including tablet computing devices, mobile devices such as smartphones, electronic games, digital video, networking, military/aerospace and memory. Magma products provide the "Fastest Path to Silicon"™ and include software for digital design, analog implementation, mixed-signal design, physical verification, circuit simulation, characterization and yield management. The company maintains headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Magma's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Follow Magma on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MagmaEDA and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Magma. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.
Magma is a registered trademark and Excalibur-Litho and "Fastest Path to Silicon" are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Forward-Looking Statements:
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements that Excalibur-Litho accelerates yield ramp, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including, but not limited to Magma's ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and the company's products' abilities to produce desired results. Further discussion of these and other potential risk factors may be found in Magma's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). Magma undertakes no additional obligation to update these forward-looking statements.