How do chip design engineers make sure that there is no interference between different circuit modules due to electromagnetic fields, given that every circuit component is very close to each other?
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When a new design process is developed, they run a series of tests and simulations to determine rules for making the chips so they work properly. These are verified in test chips as well. These rules are referred to design rule checks (or DRCs).
The software used by the designers to make the chips, makes sure that the design does not violate any of these DRCs. If they do, the design is redone until all the rules are passed successfully. The software is also written to take these rules into account when automating the design process so these violations are not created.
These rules can include things like; how long wires can run next to each other, the shapes of the wires, how wide the wires need to be to connect to another wire, etc.
There can be 1000s of these rules and as the process gets smaller, the number of rules gets larger.
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