Recent collaboration between UMC and Synopsys has resulted in a complete RTL-to-GDSII reference design flow, which now includes critical design for manufacturing features for UMC抯 90nm process. Suzanna Chang, Senior Director of Marketing for UMC, and Paul Lai, Group Manager of Strategic Alliances, Synopsys, explain how the use of this flow can help designers reduce design risk and speed time to results. UMC's Design for Manufacturing (DFM) efforts supplement the basic design work that is performed to support customers. This helps increase the chances of first time silicon success, which is critical in reducing time to market and overall costs at technologies of 90nm and below. Improved DFM solutions help customers realize enhanced yields, faster turnaround times, and reduced risk and uncertainty to ultimately lower development costs. Synopsys Professional Services and UMC have worked closely together to develop the complete RTL-to-GDSII design flow, which is based on Synopsys Galaxy™ Design Platform. This collaboration builds upon UMC抯 advanced technology and Synopsys� proven expertise in design flows and provides customers with access to an optimized flow that delivers high quality, low-power system-on-chip (SoC) designs, while speeding time to results. The latest release of the Galaxy Design Platform includes many new capabilities, including advanced floor planning, multiple threshold voltage leakage power optimization, signal integrity analysis, and tighter design for manufacturing (DFM) links, all of which can be used with UMC抯 90nm process. The reference design flow has been validated using ARM抯 Artisan� SAGE-X™ production-proven UMC 90nm standard cell library. This allows UMC customers to have access to a validated reference flow tailored to UMC抯 advanced 90nm process.