Electromigration evaluation methodology with consideration of both self-heating and heat sink thermal effects

A method for evaluating a heat sensitive structure of an integrated circuit design comprising:

• identifying a first heat dissipating structure in an integrated circuit design layout, the first heat dissipating structure having a nominal operating temperature with a first test program applied to the integrated circuit design layout and a first thermal coupling volume;
• identifying a heat sensitive structure within the first thermal coupling volume;
• calculating a nominal operating temperature Tnom of the heat sensitive structure with the first test program applied to the integrated circuit design;
• calculating a ΔTc1 for the heat sensitive structure induced by thermal coupling between the first heat dissipating structure at the nominal operating temperature and the heat sensitive structure;
• and
• conducting a performance evaluation of the heat sensitive structure at an evaluation temperature of TΕ=Tnom +ΔTc1.

A method for evaluating a heat sensitive structure of an integrated circuit design comprising:

• identifying a first heat generating structure in an integrated circuit design layout, the first heat generating structure having a nominal operating temperature;
• performing a pseudo 3-D analysis of the integrated circuit design layout to define a first thermal coupling volume for the first heat generating structure and identify a heat sensitive structure having a nominal operating temperature of Tnom within the first thermal coupling volume;
• calculating a ΔTh for the heat sensitive structure induced by thermal coupling with the first heat generating structure;
• conducting an evaluation of the heat sensitive structure at an adjusted temperature TE=Tnom+ΔTh;
• and
• generating tape out data for producing a mask set for manufacturing the integrated circuit design after the heat sensitive structure passes the evaluation.