A novel approximation procedure for efficient yield simulation and optimization of integrated circuits

Author

Zhihua Wang ; Director, Stephen W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

fYear

1994

Firstpage

166

Lastpage

173

Abstract

A novel method for the yield simulation of integrated circuits based on an approximation of circuit performance is proposed. By using this method, only one complete circuit simulation is needed for the estimation of yield. To estimate the gradient of yield, only one circuit simulation and a sensitivity analysis at the nominal point are required, so the computational costs are very low. The algorithms have been implemented in a software based on SPICE 3 and NPSOL for yield simulation and optimization. Examples are given to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithms

Keywords

SPICE; circuit analysis computing; digital simulation; integrated circuit manufacture; optimisation; semiconductor process modelling; NPSOL; SPICE 3; approximation procedure; circuit performance approximation; computational costs; gradient of yield; integrated circuit optimization; integrated circuit simulation; sensitivity analysis; yield simulation; Circuit optimization; Circuit simulation; Computational efficiency; Computational modeling; Integrated circuit modeling; Integrated circuit yield; SPICE; Sensitivity analysis; Software algorithms; Yield estimation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Simulation Symposium, 1994., 27th Annual

Conference_Location

La Jolla, CA

Print_ISBN

0-8186-5620-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SIMSYM.1994.283100

Filename

283100