Uncertainty in key parameters within a chip and between different chips in the deep sub micron area plays a more and more important role. As a result, manufacturing process spreads need to be considered during the design process. Quantitative methodology is needed to ensure faultless functionality, despite existing process variations within given bounds, during product development. This book presents the technological, physical, and mathematical fundamentals for a design paradigm shift, from a deterministic process to a probability-orientated design process for microelectronic circuits. Readers will learn to evaluate the different sources of variations in the design flow in order to establish different design variants, while applying appropriate methods and tools to evaluate and optimize their design.
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Process Variations and their Impact on Circuit Operation
DFT '98: Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Defect and Fault-Tolerance in VLSI SystemsThe statistical variations in electrical parameters, such as transistor gain factors and interconnect resistances, due to variations in the manufacturing process are studied using data obtained from a 0.8 micron CMOS process. The impact of these ...
Mapping Statistical Process Variations Toward Circuit Performance Variability: An Analytical Modeling Approach
An analytical gate delay model is developed by integrating short-channel effects and the Alpha-power law-based timing model. As verified with an industrial 90-nm technology, this analytical approach accurately predicts both nominal delay and delay ...