Circuit Design Reliability Simulation via Lookup Table Interpolation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Integrated circuits (ICs) face challenges in evaluating and ensuring high reliability, especially in applications requiring long-term performance under extreme conditions, as existing methods lack comprehensive simulation tools for predicting failure rates across various components like standard cells, metal lines, and transistors.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a memory device, a simulating device, and a lookup table is used to simulate the reliability of circuit cells by generating failure rates based on output loading values and input slew values, employing SPICE simulations and EM analysis to create a lookup table for failure rates, which can be interpolated to calculate total failure rates for circuit designs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If comprehensive simulation tools are used to evaluate failure rates across all IC components, then reliability prediction accuracy is improved, but computational complexity and simulation time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The simulation system is segmented into multiple specialized modules: a failure rate calculation module that computes failure rates for individual circuit cells based on electrical characteristics, and a total failure rate calculation module that aggregates results. This segmentation allows each module to handle specific tasks efficiently, improving overall accuracy without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary simulation by calculating failure rates for individual circuit cells before computing the total failure rate for the entire IC design. Lookup tables are pre-computed and stored for rapid reference during final failure rate calculations, reducing real-time computational complexity while maintaining accuracy.
2Reliability
If failure rates are calculated for all circuit cells under various loading conditions, then reliability prediction is improved, but computational time and resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
Failure rate characteristics for circuit cells under various loading conditions are pre-calculated and stored in lookup tables before actual IC design analysis. This preliminary action allows the system to quickly retrieve and aggregate failure rates during final reliability assessment, significantly reducing simulation time while maintaining comprehensive coverage of different operating conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses lookup tables that contain pre-computed failure rate data representing typical circuit cell behaviors under various conditions. These tables serve as copies of extensive simulation results that can be rapidly referenced without re-running full simulations, reducing computational time while preserving reliability prediction accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for simulating reliability of a circuit design includes: a first memory device, arranged to store a technology file, wherein the circuit design comprises a plurality of circuit cells, and the first memory device further stores a plurality of first failure rates corresponding to a first circuit cell in the plurality of circuit cells; a first simulating device, coupled to the first memory device, for generating a first specific failure rate of the first circuit cell according to the plurality of first failure rates and the technology file; and an operating device, coupled to the first simulating device, for generating a total failure rate of the circuit design according to the first specific failure rate.