September 30, 2002
'OASIS' Officially Launched as GDSII
Replacement for Photomask Data Format
The Semiconductor Reporter |
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Oasis' Officially
Launched as GDSII
Replacement
for Photomask Data
Format
MONTEREY, Calif.--A proposed replacement for
the industry's two-decade-old GDSII photomask
data-file format was unvealed at the BACUS Symposium
on Photomask Technology here today.
The new proposed format, called "Oasis,"
was developed over the past year by a group
of companies representing IC suppliers, design
automation vendors, photomask makers and equipment
suppliers. The Oasis format is capable of handling
64-bit design files and will compact data between
10-to-50 times compared to the existing GDSII
Stream format, according to supporters (see
Sept. 26 story).
"We believe that the data volume explosion
taking place through the 0.18- and 0.13-micron
process generations is only going to get worse
as the industry moves to smaller process nodes,"
said Tom Grebinski, the Data Path Taskforce
chairman for the effort organized by the Semiconductor
Equipment and Materials International (SEMI)
trade group. "Our current results show
that the new stream format presents an effective
approach to mitigating this problem, if it is
adopted uniformly across the design and mask
manufacturing supply chain."
Japan's Selete semiconductor consortium today
announced its endorsement of the proposed Oasis
stream format, according to the SEMI taskforce.
The new data format will now be submitted for
approval as a standard by the SEMI Worldwide
Microlithography Committee.
