Semiconductor chip design having thermal awareness across multiple sub-system domains

A system for computer-aided-design of integrated circuits, the system comprising:

• a computing platform including processor, memory, and I/O;
• a physical design subsystem adapted to manipulate a design database representing at least a portion of a chip having an associated physical structure, operational temperature distribution, and operational electrical performance;
• a thermal analysis subsystem adapted to simulate the operational temperature distribution of at least part of the chip using thermal modeling of all thermally significant features of the physical structure, the thermally significant features comprising active devices of a die and embedded multi-layer interconnect of the die and being described by the design database;
• an electrical analysis subsystem adapted to simulate the operational electrical performance of the at least part of the chip;
• an analysis communication subsystem adapted to programmatically communicate information between the thermal and the electrical analysis subsystems;
• and
• a thermal improvement subsystem adapted to selectively modify aspects of the design database based on the simulated operational temperature distribution and the simulated operational electrical performance in accordance with at least one predetermined criteria.

An article of manufacture, comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein a computer program component adapted to semiconductor computer-aided-design, the computer program component comprising:

• a first code segment, which when executed on a computer, is adapted to manipulate a design database representing at least a portion of a chip having an associated physical structure, operational temperature distribution, and operational electrical performance;
• a second code segment, which when executed on the computer, simulates the operational temperature distribution of at least pan of the chip using thermal modeling of all thermally significant features of the physical structure, the thermally significant features comprising active devices of a die and embedded multi-layer interconnect of the die and being described by the design database;
• a third code segment, which when executed on the computer, simulates the operational electrical performance of the at least part of the chip;
• a fourth code segment, which when executed on the computer, programmatically communicates information between the acts of simulating;
• and
• a fifth code segment, which when executed on the computer, selectively modifies aspects of the design database based on the simulated temperature distribution and the simulated operational electrical performance in accordance with at least one predetermined criteria.