FAB

CMC Microsystems supports fabrication access to a variety of technologies for digital, analog, RF, mixed-signal, MEMS, microfluidic and photonic/optoelectronic designs. For complete listing of technologies, please see Fabrication Technologies.

Anyone  can access these services.

Faculty (and their students) who hold a Subscription and are at a Canadian universities, can access services in the following ways:

1. Discounted access for academic research designs awarded through a resource competition process.
2. Full cost-recovery access for academic research designs taking advantage of CMC’s preferred pricing agreements.

Non-Canadian Academics and Commercial Enterprises can contact fab@cmc.ca

Two costing scenarios exist for Researchers in a Canadian University:

• Researchers can obtain device fabrication at a discounted cost by applying through a Resource Competition.  Applications will be reviewed by a Peer Review Committee.
• Fabrication area can be purchased at the Canadian Academic Price.  This option allows the researcher to bypass the peer review process.

Requests from Non-Canadian Academics and/or Commercial Enterprises should be directed to fab@cmc.ca.

Additional information on pricing is available here.

Fabrication Runs and Dates are posted on our Fabrication Schedule.  You can participate on a MPW, shown as a Scheduled Run on the schedule.  For those that need a run outside of these dates, can request an On-Demand run, which may have higher minimum area and costing.  Note, all dates reflected on this schedule are CMC’s design submission time; additional time is required to aggregate designs prior to submission to foundry.

You do not require a Subscription to apply for discounted Fabrication Access through a CMC Resource Competition but you will require a Subscription to take advantage of any award.

Choose your target run from our Fabrication Schedule and  select Apply Now.

All requests are reviewed by an external Peer-Review Committee, including Industry and Academic Reviewers drawn from across the country and with expertise in the specific technology areas being targeted.  The Review committee will recommend allocation of fabrication resources based on the information included in the application: “Request for Manufacturing Resources Form” (RFMR), rated against CMC’s Effectiveness Criteria.  Note:  Successful applications generally contain detailed performance specifications and substantive information.

Applications that have been awarded resources will be fabricated in limited quantities, assuming standard processing is requested.  Packaged parts, special processing option and special requests are available and may be subject to additional costs.  Please identify these requirements on your RFMR form.

Researchers are typically notified of awards within three (3) weeks of the Competition Application Deadline.

The format of a chip name for ITTUUXXX is:

• I indicates that the chip is intended for Implementation (fabrication),
• TT is a two-letter code representing the process technology,
• UU is the two-letter code for your university and
• XXX is a user-chosen three-letter identifier that must be unique within your university.

An example is ICFWTABC, a CMOSP18 chip from University of Waterloo with given name ABC. A table of two-letter university codes can be found here . Two-letter codes for the process technologies are included here.

A detailed email with allocation details, associated costs and instructions on award acceptance will be sent to both faculty and student(s).  A financial commitment (P.O. from the University, payment information) and a valid Subscription must be received prior to design submission deadline.

Up to Design Deadline, use the CMC Microsystems DRC

• You must use secure FTP to submit for DRC using the following steps:
  • Export your design from your CAD tool is GDSII (stream) format.  For the stream, choose a design name (as shown above) of the form DTTUUXXX where D indicates the design file is intended for DRC, TT is the technology code, UU is your university code and XXX is a name you choose for your design.  Please also make the top-level cell name the same as the design name.
  • Optionally compress the file using the Unix compress(1) utility.  The Unix command to type in this example is compress DTTUUXXX.  This will create the file DTTUUXXX.Z.  Alternatively, the file can be gzipped using the freeware gzip utility.  The command to do this would be gzip DTTUUXXX, and would result in a file called DDTTUUXXX.gz.
  • Secure FTP the design file to CMC Microsystems using the Unix command (or use DOS command in Windows environment):
    • Linux> sftp -o user=<your_academia_email_account> cmc-fab-01.cmc.ca
    • For username and password, use the account that CMC Microsystems gave you when you registered with CMC.
  • Change to the “fab” directory using the command cd fab.  This will place you into a write-only directory. (you cannot “ls” or “get” a file).
  • Deposit the stream file with the command (in this example) put DTTUUXXX.Z (or DTTUUXXX.gds if you did not compress file).   NOTE:  if you have recently deposited a file by the same name, the ftp may fail with the error message “permission denied”.  This is because the design file is still queued for DRC and has not yet been removed from the directly.  You can try to delete it with the command del DTTUUXXX.Z (or DTTUUXXX.gds) or submit a file with a different name.  A suffix can be added to the file name to make it different.  In this case, the file name could be changed to DTTUUXXX_1.Z (or DTTUUXXX_1.gds).
  • Enter quit to log out and exit the FTP utility.
  • After the design file has been successfully deposited on CMC Microsystems’ FTP server, send an e-mail message to fab@cmc.ca with the name of the file (DTTUUXXX.Z or DTTUUXXX.gds) in the subject field or body to notify use that the file has been deposited and to indicate who is using the DRC service and who to contact if necessary.
  • View DRC results on the Web.  Must hold a valid Subscription to view results.  CMC Microsystems’ DRC and Implementation service automatically DRCs each design we receive and posts the results to a Web page.  Instructions on how to retrieve your results can be found here.  Make sure you view any log files to do with phantom library/black box substitutions to ensure that your design has been handled correctly.
  • If you do not see DRC results within several hours, send a message to fab@cmc.ca.

•  DRC service is available at no cost to students and researchers holding a valid Subscription, working on non-commercial designs for research or educational purposes.
• During chip design, the CMC Microsystems DRC service should be used for information on DRC violations, data compatibility with CMC Microsystems CAD systems and confirmation that large design files can be submitted error-free over the network.

Submit a Request for Implementation (RFI) and Final Design Data to CMC

• Request For Implementation form (RFI) is due to CMC Microsystems by the submission deadline date. The RFI is mandatory, whether or not you have previously submitted an RFMR.
• The RFI includes designer names and packaging information, and lists any intentionally violated design rules, it’s an essential document that CMC Microsystems uses to qualify designs for fabrication and to contact designers when necessary.
• Once logged into CMC website, please:
  • Go to: https://competitions.cmc.ca/CMC/HomePage.aspx
  • Select “Fab Applications” Tab
  • Click on “Edit RFI” Link associated with your design
    • Please note, if the supervising faculty has not accepted the award/associated costs, the RFI link will not be enabled.
• Final design data in GDSII format must arrive in full via FTP at CMC Microsystems on or before 2:00 PM (Eastern Time) on the designated submission deadline day. All late designs will be treated as low priority and may not be fabricated.

• Submit your final design using the following instructions:
  • Please follow same instructions provided for DRC using ITTUUXXX, whereas “I” indicates design is being submitted for Implementation.  All other procedures remain the same.  For designs to be accepted for fabrication, a valid Subscription must be in place, allocation accepted by faculty, no outstanding test reports and design does not exceed allocated dimensions.

• If you submit your design more than once, CMC Microsystems will assume that the most recent design received is the version for fabrication.

Forecasted delivery dates are published on our Fabrication Schedule.  Once loose die /and or packaged parts are shipped, the principal designer and supervisor will receive an email from CMC with the tracking number.  All deliveries are sent to the attention of the faculty.

All test reports are due within 3 months of the delivery date.

To submit a test report, please:

• Go to https://competitions.cmc.ca/CMC/ and login
• Select “Test Report” tab
• Select the design name for the report you are completing
• To submit at a later date, select “Request an Extension”

NOTE:  Failure to submit your Test Report within the allotted time could jeopardize future Request for Manufacturing Resource Applications.