Systems and methods for estimating temperatures of wires in an integrated circuit chip

A system for estimating a temperature of a wire i of an integrated circuit (IC) chip having a plurality of heat-generating components, the system comprising:

• a processing system;
• and
• a memory in communication with the processing system, wherein the processing system is configured to execute steps comprising:
• accessing at least a portion of a computer readable model comprising model data describing the IC chip comprising the plurality of heat generating components and the wire i;
• computing, based on the model data, for each of the heat-generating components:
• a temperature of the heat-generating component during operation of the IC chip;
• a decay profile that defines a thermal coupling from the heat-generating component to wires of the IC chip as a function of distance from the heat-generating component;
• and
• a temperature elevation ΔT on the wire i caused by the heat-generating component, the temperature elevation ΔT being computed based on (i) the temperature of the heat-generating component, (ii) the decay profile of the heat-generating component, and (iii) a spatial relationship between the wire i and the heat-generating component;
• and
• computing a total temperature elevation ΔTi on the wire i by summing the temperature elevation ΔT of each of the heat-generating components of at least the portion of computer readable model of the IC chip, wherein the heat-generating components include a plurality of wires of the IC chip and at least one device of the IC chip.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for estimating a temperature of a wire i of an integrated circuit (IC) chip having a plurality of heat-generating components, the computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed, cause a processing system to execute steps comprising:

• accessing at least a portion of a computer readable model of the IC chip comprising the plurality of heat generating components and the wire i
• extracting, from the at least a portion of a computer readable model of the IC chip, model data describing one or more physical characteristics of a physical embodiment of the model of the IC chip;
• computing, based on the model data, for each of the heat-generating components:
• a temperature of the heat-generating component during operation of the IC chip;
• a decay profile that defines a thermal coupling from the heat-generating component to wires of the IC chip as a function of distance from the heat-generating component;
• and
• a temperature elevation ΔT on the wire i caused by the heat-generating component, the temperature elevation ΔT being computed based on (i) the temperature of the heat-generating component, (ii) the decay profile of the heat-generating component, and (iii) a spatial relationship between the wire i and the heat-generating component;
• computing a total temperature elevation ΔTi on the wire i by summing the temperature elevation ΔT of each of the heat-generating components of at least the portion of computer readable model of the IC chip, wherein the heat-generating components include a plurality of wires of the IC chip and at least one device of the IC chip;
• and
• modifying or fabricating the physical embodiment of the computer readable model of the IC chip based on the computed total temperature elevation ΔTi on the wire i.