Circuit Radiation Susceptibility Analysis Before Fabrication
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing engineering effort and cost required for developing and validating radiation-induced single-event-effects tolerant microelectronics in modern technology nodes pose a challenge, as current methods lack a reliable means to assess radiation susceptibility before fabrication, leading to delays and increased costs due to the need for extensive testing and potential obsolescence of technology nodes.
Innovation Solution
A hardware compute accelerator system that performs radiation-induced single-event-effects susceptibility analysis and prediction during the design process, identifying vulnerable areas and providing a susceptibility assessment before fabrication, allowing for targeted mitigation strategies and reduced development time and cost.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If radiation testing and iterative design cycles are performed to ensure radiation tolerance, then reliability of microelectronics is improved, but engineering effort, cost, and time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs radiation susceptibility analysis and prediction during the design process before fabrication, identifying vulnerable areas and providing susceptibility assessments in advance. This preliminary action eliminates the need for iterative radiation testing cycles after fabrication, significantly reducing development time while maintaining reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses simulation and modeling to create virtual representations of radiation effects on circuit designs. By analyzing these simulated models during design, engineers can predict radiation susceptibility without physical fabrication and testing, reducing both time and material costs while ensuring reliability
2Reliability
If radiation testing and iterative design cycles are performed to ensure radiation tolerance, then reliability of microelectronics is improved, but engineering effort and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs radiation susceptibility analysis and prediction during the design process before fabrication, identifying vulnerable areas and providing susceptibility assessments in advance. This preliminary action eliminates the need for iterative radiation testing cycles after fabrication, significantly reducing development time while maintaining reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses simulation and modeling to create virtual representations of radiation effects on circuit designs. By analyzing these simulated models during design, engineers can predict radiation susceptibility without physical fabrication and testing, reducing both time and material costs while ensuring reliability
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for semiconductor design evaluation. IC layout information of a circuit design is received, and the circuit design is decomposed into smaller circuit pieces. Each circuit piece has IC layout information and a netlist. For each circuit piece, a set of strike models is selected based on the layout information and the net-list of the circuit piece and received radiation environment information. Each strike model has circuit components with voltage values corresponding to a respective particle strike. For each selected strike model of a circuit piece: a radiation susceptibility metric is determined by comparing functional results of simulation of the of the strike model with functional results of simulation of the circuit piece. For each circuit piece, a radiation susceptibility metric is determined based on the radiation susceptibility metrics generated for each selected strike model of the circuit piece.