Mission profile aware IC design — A case study

Consistent consideration of mission profiles throughout a supply chain is essential for the development of robust electronic components. Consideration of mission profiles is still mainly a manual task today despite rapidly decreasing robustness margins in modern automotive semiconductor technologies. Mission profile awareness aids the automation of robustness aware design by formalizing and partially automating the generation, transformation, propagation and usage of all component-specific functional loads and environmental conditions for design implementation and validation. In addition, it aids the development of electronic components in yet immature technologies or in technologies with tight parameter variation bounds. This paper introduces the general concept, requirements and context of mission profile aware design. The general design approach is presented along with key differences and enhancements to existing design approaches. A case study focusing on mission profile usage and electromigration failure avoidance is presented to demonstrate various aspects of mission profile aware design.