Subcircuit-based aging modeling method, electronic device, and storage medium

Abstract

The present invention provides a sub-circuit-based aging modeling method, electronic device, and storage medium. The method includes the following steps: declaring an aging model and binding it to a basic device model; declaring sub-circuit information to be bound to the aging model; traversing the basic devices bound to the aging model and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices; and, at each simulation convergence point, traversing all basic devices bound to the aging model, collecting the bound sub-circuit information, and transferring it to the aging model. The sub-circuit-based aging modeling method, electronic device, and storage medium of the present invention can collect sub-circuit-level operating information while ensuring simulation speed, providing more accurate input for aging model calculation and improving the accuracy of circuit aging simulation.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of integrated circuit automated product design, and in particular to a sub-circuit-based aging modeling method, electronic equipment, and storage medium. Background Art

[0002] Electronic design automation (EDA) is an essential component of electronic circuit design. Designers use EDA software to assist in circuit design, adjustment, and verification. Circuit simulation software, used in the simulation phase, strives to simulate designs at the device level by applying powerful numerical analysis tools and accurately modeling devices, helping designers verify the functionality and performance of their designs. With the increasing popularity and application of consumer electronics, such as automotive electronics, design specifications have not only set requirements for factory performance of circuits, but also for the reliability of designed circuits. One of the key indicators is reliability over time, which means that designers need to simulate the working state of the designed circuit several years from now during the design phase. This is where aging simulation comes in.

[0003] The conventional aging simulation process first performs aging modeling on the model, forming an aging model distinct from the basic model. Physically, conventional aging models typically demonstrate that due to changes in the device's operating state during operation, new traps and defects accumulate within the device, leading to changes in physical parameters such as the threshold voltage and carrier mobility. This, in turn, affects the device's physical properties, resulting in degradation of circuit performance over time. The aging model is typically abstracted as dM = F{P, V, t}, where dM represents the degradation of basic model parameters (such as threshold voltage and carrier mobility), P represents basic device or model parameters, V represents the device's operating current or voltage, t represents the device's operating time, and F indicates that the model parameter degradation is a function of P, V, and t. Since P is a fixed value and V varies with the circuit's operating state during the simulation, the simulator must pass the device's current operating state (V) and current time (t) to the aging model at each simulation convergence point. The aging model then calculates the model parameter degradation after several years of continuous operation under these operating conditions. By using this degradation value to modify the model parameters, a post-aging device model can be obtained. This model can then be used to simulate the circuit to determine the circuit's operating state after several years of aging, helping designers determine whether the design meets reliability requirements.

[0004] At present, traditional aging simulations are all modeled based on the basic model for the working state of the device itself. However, with the advancement of technology to advanced nodes and the application of high-voltage devices such as laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductors, in order to ensure the accuracy of modeling of the basic model, a device will be split into a combination of several basic devices (generally a core device plus several peripheral resistors and capacitors) during the modeling stage, and then packaged together in the form of a sub-circuit, and finally the behavior of a basic device is simulated through this sub-circuit. In this mode, if the aging model and the device are bound (that is, the core device) according to the traditional process, the working parameters obtained by the aging model will only be the current and voltage of the core device, and the current and voltage of the peripheral circuit will be ignored. This potential problem will lead to a significant underestimation of the aging effect of the device, especially in the calculation of aging modeling using voltage, which will lead to the circuit performance being misestimated in the aging simulation, affecting product design and iteration. The problem solved by the present invention is how to perform aging simulation calculations on the device at the sub-circuit level for sub-circuit model devices, thereby improving the calculation accuracy of the aging model and the aging simulation accuracy. Summary of the Invention

[0005] To address the shortcomings of the prior art, the present invention provides a sub-circuit-based aging modeling method, electronic device, and storage medium. Specifically, the present method addresses the current underestimation of the aging effects of sub-circuit components in integrated circuit aging simulations. By binding sub-circuits and components, the present invention collects sub-circuit operating information within automated integrated circuit products, allowing for modeling and calculation of aging models at the sub-circuit level, thereby improving the accuracy of aging model calculations.

[0006] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a sub-circuit-based aging modeling method, comprising the following steps:

[0007] Declare the aging model and bind it to the base device model;

[0008] Declare the sub-circuit information that the aging model needs to bind;

[0009] Traversing the basic devices bound to the aging model, and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices;

[0010] At each simulation convergence point, all basic devices bound to the aging model are traversed, the bound sub-circuit information is collected and passed to the aging model.

[0011] Furthermore, the sub-circuit information includes: the name, port and parameters of the sub-circuit.

[0012] Furthermore, the step of declaring the aging model and binding it to the basic device model further includes: binding the aging model parameters and the basic device model parameters using the syntax declaration of the input netlist.

[0013] Furthermore, the step of declaring the aging model and binding it to the basic device model further includes: binding the aging model parameters and the basic device model parameters by using the name and mapping relationship of the declared model in a model library file, a netlist file or an additional include file, including but not limited to.

[0014] Furthermore, the step of declaring the sub-circuit information to which the aging model needs to be bound further includes: in a model library file, a netlist file, or an additional include file, using a syntax declaration of an input netlist, binding the aging model and the sub-circuit information to which it needs to be bound.

[0015] Furthermore, the step of traversing the basic devices to which the aging model has been bound and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices further includes: after the simulator parses the obtained declared aging model and binds it to the basic device model and the input of the sub-circuit information that the declared aging model needs to be bound, traversing all basic devices to determine whether the basic device model has a bound aging model, and whether the aging model has a bound sub-circuit and sub-circuit parameters; if so, searching for the bound sub-circuit and recording its information in the basic device.

[0016] Furthermore, the step of traversing the basic devices to which the aging model has been bound and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices further includes: traversing the basic devices, and if the basic device model corresponding to the basic device is not bound to the aging model, the basic device is a non-aging model and does not need to be bound to the sub-circuit; if the basic device model corresponding to the basic device is bound to the aging model, searching upward along the circuit hierarchy for a sub-circuit that matches its declaration, and when the sub-circuit to be bound is found, recording the sub-circuit information into the basic device through a pointer.

[0017] Furthermore, the step of traversing all basic components bound to the aging model at each simulation convergence point, collecting the bound sub-circuit information and transferring it to the aging model further includes: in the process of traversing the basic components each time, checking whether the basic component is an aging component and whether the basic component is bound to corresponding sub-circuit information; if so, obtaining the bound sub-circuit information dynamically updated based on each simulation point through a pointer.

[0018] To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the present invention also proposes an electronic device, comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to implement the steps of the sub-circuit-based aging modeling method as described above.

[0019] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention further proposes a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the storage medium stores at least one instruction, which is loaded and executed by a processor to implement the steps of the sub-circuit-based aging modeling method as described above.

[0020] The sub-circuit-based aging modeling method, electronic device, and storage medium proposed in the present invention have the following technical effects compared to the existing technology: by binding sub-circuits and devices, sub-circuit-level information can be provided to the aging model during circuit simulation, thereby improving the accuracy of aging simulation without significant additional performance overhead, and providing circuit designers with more reliable aging simulation results.

[0021] Other features and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] The accompanying drawings are used to provide a further understanding of the present invention and constitute a part of the specification. Together with the embodiments of the present invention, they are used to explain the present invention and do not constitute a limitation of the present invention. In the accompanying drawings:

[0023] Figure 1 Flowchart of a sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0024] Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the relationship between sub-circuits and core components according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 3 FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the preferred embodiments described herein are only used to illustrate and explain the present invention, and are not used to limit the present invention.

[0027] In an embodiment of the present invention, a sub-circuit-based aging modeling method is provided, the method comprising:

[0028] Declare the aging model and bind it to the base device model;

[0029] Declare the sub-circuit information that the aging model needs to bind;

[0030] Traversing the basic devices bound to the aging model, and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices;

[0031] At each simulation convergence point, all basic devices bound to the aging model are traversed, the bound sub-circuit information is collected and passed to the aging model.

[0032] Figure 1 The flowchart of the aging modeling method based on the sub-circuit in the embodiment of the present invention is as follows. Figure 1 , the sub-circuit-based aging model modeling method of the present invention is described in detail.

[0033] First, in step 101, the simulation program is started.

[0034] In step 102 , binding information for declaring an aging model and binding it to a basic device model is obtained.

[0035] In this step, the declaring of the aging model and binding it to the basic device model refers to using the syntax declaration of the input netlist to bind the aging model parameters and the basic device model parameters. Specifically, it also includes: in the model library file, the netlist file or the additional include file, using the model name and mapping relationship declaration to bind the aging model parameters and the basic device model parameters. Since the aging model and the basic device model are often modeled separately, the model parameters of the two are mutually dependent. In particular, referring to the formula dM=F{P,V,t} mentioned above, the P parameter here includes not only the basic device model parameters, but also the aging model parameters. Therefore, binding the basic device model to the aging model is not only conducive to obtaining the basic device model parameters when calculating the aging model, but also can mark the device containing the aging model, and use the mark to optimize the simulation process, thereby improving the simulation efficiency.

[0036] In step 103, the sub-circuit information to be bound to the declared aging model is obtained. The sub-circuit information includes: the name, port and parameters of the sub-circuit.

[0037] In this step, the declaration of sub-circuit information that the aging model needs to be bound to refers to declaring the mapping relationship between the core components in each sub-circuit model and its complete sub-circuit name through syntax in the input netlist. Through this declaration, the simulator can search and confirm the sub-circuit information corresponding to the core components by searching upward along the circuit hierarchy, thereby providing the necessary data for the next step of binding the model. In this embodiment of the present invention, the relationship between the sub-circuit and the core component is as follows: Figure 2 shown.

[0038] In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of declaring sub-circuit information to be bound to the aging model further includes: binding the aging model and the sub-circuit information to be bound using a syntax declaration of an input netlist in, including but not limited to, a model library file, a netlist file, or an additional include file.

[0039] In step 104, the sub-circuit information is bound to the basic device. After the simulator parses the input obtained in steps 102 and 103, it traverses all basic devices to determine whether the basic device model has a bound aging model, and whether the aging model has bound sub-circuits and sub-circuit parameters. If so, the bound sub-circuit is searched and its information is recorded in the basic device.

[0040] In the embodiment of the present invention, subcircuit information is bound to the basic device because the smallest loop unit in the simulation process is the device. The subcircuit will be flattened into several separate devices during the simulation analysis phase, and the subcircuit structure will no longer exist, making it impossible to obtain the subcircuit's port and parameter information. Therefore, only by parsing the declared binding information before the simulation begins and recording the bound port, parameter, and other information into the basic device through a pointer can the subcircuit's port voltage and current, as well as the subcircuit parameter information, be directly obtained through the basic device during the simulation process, avoiding multiple searches and thus improving simulation efficiency.

[0041] In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of declaring sub-circuit information to be bound to the aging model further includes: binding the aging model and the sub-circuit information to be bound using a syntax declaration of an input netlist in, including but not limited to, a model library file, a netlist file, or an additional include file.

[0042] In this step, the basic components are traversed. If the basic component model corresponding to the basic component is not bound to an aging model, it indicates that the component is a non-aging model and does not require sub-circuit binding. If the basic component model corresponding to the basic component is bound to an aging model, the circuit hierarchy is searched upwards for a sub-circuit that matches its declaration. Once the sub-circuit to be bound is found, the sub-circuit information is recorded in the basic component through a pointer. This facilitates subsequent updates to the sub-circuit information and allows the basic component to promptly obtain the updated sub-circuit information.

[0043] In step 105 , at each convergence point of the transient simulation, the basic devices are traversed, updated sub-circuit information is collected and passed to the aging model.

[0044] In this step, all basic devices bound to the aging model are traversed and the bound sub-circuit information is collected. This means that during the circuit simulation process, the minimum unit of traversal calculation is the basic device. After the sub-circuit information has been bound to the basic device, in each traversal, it is only necessary to check whether the device is an aging device and whether there is corresponding sub-circuit information. The bound sub-circuit information that is dynamically updated based on each simulation point can be directly obtained through the pointer.

[0045] In step 106 , it is determined whether the simulation is finished. If the simulation is not finished yet, the process returns to step 105 to collect data at the next time convergence point. If the simulation is finished, the process proceeds to step 107 .

[0046] Finally, in step 107, the simulation ends.

[0047] The advantages of the present invention are the following two aspects:

[0048] First, it effectively improves the calculation accuracy of the aging model: Traditional aging simulation is based on basic devices, and all device working information comes from the basic devices. However, with the development of technology and the improvement of basic device modeling methods, conventional basic devices are often split into a core device and several peripheral circuits. If only the working voltage of the core device is used at this time, the voltage division of its peripheral circuit will be ignored, resulting in the aging effect calculated by the aging model being greatly underestimated. The method of the present invention binds the core device and the peripheral sub-circuit so that the core device can also obtain the working information of the sub-circuit, so that the aging model can use the complete sub-circuit information for aging calculation, reducing the aging model's dependence on the model modeling of the basic device and improving the accuracy of the aging calculation.

[0049] Second, smaller process overhead: First, in the first step of binding the aging model to the base model, the base model will be marked. Only the basic components under the base model marked with the aging model will enter the subsequent process, thereby reducing the judgment of a large number of irrelevant components and reducing process overhead. Then, before the binding sub-circuit information is selected and flattened at the circuit level, the circuit still maintains a tree-like hierarchical structure, which facilitates the simulator to search upward for the sub-circuit binding and reduces the search overhead. In summary, the present invention completes the sub-circuit information binding while introducing as little additional overhead as possible.

[0050] In an embodiment of the present invention, an electronic device is further provided. Figure 3 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 As shown, the electronic device of the present invention includes a processor 301 and a memory 302, wherein:

[0051] The memory 302 stores a computer program. When the computer program is read and executed by the processor 301 , the computer program executes the steps in the embodiment of the sub-circuit-based aging modeling method.

[0052] In an embodiment of the present invention, a computer-readable storage medium is further provided, in which a computer program is stored. The computer program is configured to execute the steps of the embodiment of the sub-circuit-based aging modeling method when running.

[0053] In this embodiment, the computer-readable storage medium may include, but is not limited to, various media that can store computer programs, such as a USB flash drive, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a mobile hard disk, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0054] Those skilled in the art will understand that the foregoing descriptions are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art will be able to modify the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments or substitute equivalents for some of the technical features. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present invention shall be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A sub-circuit based aging modeling method, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: Declare the aging model and bind it to the base device model; Declare the sub-circuit information that the aging model needs to bind; Traversing the basic devices bound to the aging model, and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices; At each simulation convergence point, all basic devices bound to the aging model are traversed, the bound sub-circuit information is collected and passed to the aging model; The step of traversing the basic devices bound to the aging model and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices further includes: after the simulator parses the obtained declared aging model and binds it to the basic device model and the input of the sub-circuit information to be bound to the declared aging model, traversing all basic devices to determine whether the basic device model has a bound aging model, and whether the aging model has a bound sub-circuit and sub-circuit parameters; if so, searching for the bound sub-circuit and recording its information in the basic device; The step of traversing the basic devices bound to the aging model and binding the sub-circuit information to the basic devices further includes: traversing the basic devices, if the basic device model corresponding to the basic device is not bound to the aging model, the basic device is a non-aging model and does not need to be bound to the sub-circuit; if the basic device model corresponding to the basic device is bound to the aging model, searching upward along the circuit hierarchy for a sub-circuit that matches its declaration, and when the sub-circuit to be bound is found, recording the sub-circuit information into the basic device through a pointer.

2. The sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The sub-circuit information includes: the name, port and parameters of the sub-circuit.

3. The sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step of declaring the aging model and binding it to the basic device model further includes: binding the aging model parameters and the basic device model parameters using the syntax declaration of the input netlist.

4. The sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to claim 3, characterized in that: The step of declaring the aging model and binding it to the basic device model further includes: binding the aging model parameters and the basic device model parameters by using the name and mapping relationship of the declared model in a model library file, a netlist file or an additional included file.

5. The sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step of declaring the sub-circuit information to be bound to the aging model further includes: binding the aging model and the sub-circuit information to be bound to it using the syntax declaration of the input netlist in including but not limited to the model library file, the netlist file or the additional include file.

6. The sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step of traversing all basic components bound to the aging model at each simulation convergence point, collecting the bound sub-circuit information and transferring it to the aging model further includes: during each traversal of the basic components, checking whether the basic component is an aging component and whether the basic component is bound to corresponding sub-circuit information; if so, obtaining the bound sub-circuit information dynamically updated based on each simulation point through a pointer.

7. An electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein: The processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to implement the steps of the sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

8. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The storage medium stores at least one instruction, which is loaded and executed by the processor to implement the steps of the sub-circuit-based aging modeling method according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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