Antenna Check
The antenna basically is a metal interconnect, i.e., a conductor like polysilicon or metal, that is not electrically connected to silicon or grounded, during the processing steps of the wafer. During the manufacturing process charge accumulation can occur on the antenna during certain fabrication steps like Plasma etching, which uses highly ionized matter to etch. If the connection to silicon does not exist, charges may build up on the interconnect to the point at which rapid discharge does take place and permanent physical damage results to thin transistor gate oxide. This rapid and destructive phenomenon is known as the antenna effect. Antenna errors can be cured by adding a small antenna diode to safely discharge the node or spillting the antenna by routing up to another metal layer and then down again.
The Antenna ratio is defined as the ratio between the physical area of the conductors making up the antenna to the total gate oxide area to which the antenna is electrically connected.
Read more about this topic: Physical Verification
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