CURVION / PHYSICAL DESIGN AUTOMATION CURVILINEAR EDA · SOFTWARE PDK SAN JOSE · CA EST. 2025
§ 00 PROCESS-AWARE DESIGN

Silicon prints in curves.
Design still draws corners.

Manufacturing already went curvilinear — OPC, inverse lithography, and multi-beam mask writers print curves in production. Design never followed. Curvion brings curvilinear geometry up into physical design and carries it through to mask, so what you draw is what the wafer prints — without a correction pass to bridge the gap.

STD_CELL // CURVILINEAR LAYOUT CURVA
ApproachProcess-aware, from the start
RepresentationPath-based parametric geometry
ScopeLayout generation → post-design prep
Thesis
For forty years, design and manufacturing have spoken different languages—one in corners, one in curves. Curvion makes them speak the same one.
§ 01 — The gap

Design draws one thing. The wafer prints another.

Physical design is still locked to Manhattan geometry and conservative, rule-based margins. The silicon that comes out of the fab is curvilinear. Today's flow papers over that mismatch with heavy post-design correction — OPC and mask steps bolted on after design — which adds cost, tape-out risk, and rigidity. Curvion removes the mismatch at the source.

PLATE A // RECTILINEARCORNERS · 6
  • Detours, extra vias, and wasted track at every corner
  • Conservative 90° rules trade away area and performance
  • The layout never matches the curved shape the fab prints
PLATE B // CURVILINEARCORNERS · 0
  • Shorter paths, fewer vias, recovered cell area
  • Path-based geometry compresses layout data dramatically
  • The design already matches what lithography will print
§ 02 — The platform

Curva: a software PDK for curvilinear design.

A software PDK that generates curvilinear physical-design layout and takes it turn-key through post-design processing — complementary to the EDA flow you already run. It's built on a patent-pending path-based representation, with a working product GUI already in operation.

01
Path-based layout generation
Automated curvilinear layout built on a path-and-width parametric representation — curves defined by a few control points, not stitched together from thousands of polygons.
Generate
02
Massive data reduction
Because a curve is stored as a handful of parameters, the layout data volume that rectilinear approximation explodes is collapsed — lighter files, faster downstream processing.
Data
03
Process-aware by construction
Layout is generated against the target process from the start, so geometry is manufacturable as drawn instead of being corrected after design.
Process
04
OPC-optimized geometry
Curves aligned to how OPC and inverse lithography resolve shapes on mask and wafer, converging design intent and the printed image.
OPC · ILT
05
Turn-key post-design prep
The design is carried through post-design data preparation toward mask, closing the loop from layout to manufacturable output.
Mask
06
Complementary to legacy EDA
Designed to slot alongside established EDA tools and flows, adding curvilinear capability rather than displacing what already works.
Flow
§ 03 — Why now

The barriers just fell.

The mask side already went curvilinear: inverse lithography is commercialized and in production, and multi-beam mask writers removed the data-volume barrier that once made curves impractical to manufacture. The one place curvilinear still hasn't reached is design — and that's the opening Curvion is built for.

The same approach extends beyond logic into photonics, AR/VR optics, and CMOS image sensors — and it's designed to work alongside the incumbent EDA flow, not against it.

PHOTONICS // CURVILINEARCURVA
§ 04 — In practice

What Curva produces.

Real output from the platform — from a single standard cell to a full routed block, and across logic, photonics, and advanced-node design.

Work with us

Close the gap with us.

We're working with foundries, EDA vendors, design houses, and research groups to bring curvilinear design into production flows. If you're building at the edge of what lithography can print, let's talk.