Nvidia Utilizes Artificial Intelligence for Efficient Chip Design

KEY POINTS

• The semiconductor supply chain is becoming increasingly data-centric, with artificial intelligence playing a crucial role in chip manufacturing.
• Photolithography, a vital step in chip manufacturing, is becoming more complex with decreasing chip dimensions, necessitating new techniques like inverse lithography.
• Nvidia, the world’s leading AI chip manufacturer, is harnessing its graphics processors and a suite of software tools to make semiconductor lithography more efficient.

With the surge in demand for advanced semiconductors driven by the rapid development in artificial intelligence, AI techniques are proving to be instrumental in the continued evolution of chip manufacturing. Data has taken center stage in the semiconductor supply chain, as the entire process from design to final fabrication now relies heavily on the collation and analysis of over 100 petabytes of information, according to Intel’s estimates. This digital transformation of chip manufacturing is resulting in a growing role for machine learning, a subset of AI, in managing this data deluge.

The Role of AI in Chip Manufacturing

Data analytics and machine learning are so vital to chip making and testing that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), for example, employs a considerable number of AI engineers and maintains a dedicated machine-learning department. The increasing intricacy of electronic components, with connections on chips as thin as 5 nanometers, has necessitated a shift from manual visual inspection for defects to AI-driven systems.

Photolithography and Inverse Lithography

Photolithography, a critical step in chip manufacturing, involves creating a circuit by shining a light through a glass mask onto a chemically treated silicon slice. As chip dimensions decrease in accordance with Moore’s Law, the light diffraction issue that distorts the lines drawn on a chip’s surface becomes more critical. To counteract these distortions, optical proximity correction (OPC) has traditionally been used to add extra shapes to the original design. However, the need for new approaches led to the emergence of inverse lithography, a technique that relies on predicting distortions and adjusting the photolithography mask accordingly.

Integrating AI into Chip Design

Due to the complex nature of inverse lithography, which involves considering hundreds of different parameters, the process is extremely data-intensive and time-consuming. This problem inevitably led to the application of artificial intelligence in chip design. Particularly Nvidia is leveraging its graphics processors and a suite of software tools to make semiconductor lithography more efficient, leading to faster inverse lithography computations.

Implications and Future Prospects

Nvidia’s endeavors serve not just to expand the applications of its high-end semiconductors but also to streamline and reduce the cost of bringing its chip designs to market. As these advancements in AI and chip manufacturing continue, it is evident that the role of AI chips in creating AI chips will only increase.