Method, system, and program product for computing a yield gradient from statistical timing
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsChandramouli Visweswariah, Jinjun Xiong, Vladimir Zolotov
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Abstract
The invention provides a method, system, and program product for determining a gradient of a parametric yield of an integrated circuit with respect to parameters of a delay of an edge of a timing graph of the circuit. A first aspect of the invention provides a method for determining a gradient of a parametric yield of an integrated circuit with respect to parameters of a delay of an edge of a timing graph of the circuit, the method comprising: conducting a statistical timing analysis; expressing a statistical circuit delay in terms of a delay of the edge; and computing a gradient of the statistical circuit delay with respect to parameters of the delay of the edge.
Claims24
A method for determining a gradient of a parametric yield of an integrated circuit with respect to parameters of the delay of an edge of a timing graph of the circuit, the method comprising:
- conducting a statistical timing analysis;
- expressing a statistical circuit delay in terms of a delay of the edge by computing a statistical maximum of the edge's edge slack and complement edge slack;
- and
- computing a gradient of the statistical circuit delay with respect to parameters of the delay of the edge,
- wherein the gradient is computed using a non-numerical perturbation method.
A system for determining a gradient of a performance of an integrated circuit with respect to a delay of an edge of a timing graph of the circuit, the system comprising:
- a system for conducting a statistical timing analysis;
- a system for expressing a statistical circuit delay in terms of a delay of the edge by computing a statistical maximum of the edge's edge slack and complement edge slack;
- and
- a system for computing a gradient of the statistical circuit delay with respect to parameters of a delay of the edge,
- wherein the gradient is computed using a non-numerical perturbation method.
A program product stored on a computer-readable medium, which when executed, determines a gradient of a parametric yield of an integrated circuit with respect to parameters of a delay of an edge of a timing graph of the circuit, the program product comprising:
- program code for conducting a statistical timing analysis;
- program code for expressing a statistical circuit delay in terms of a delay of the edge;
- and
- program code for computing a gradient of the statistical circuit delay with respect to parameters of the delay of the edge,
- wherein the gradient is computed using a non-numerical perturbation method.
A method for deploying an application for determining a gradient of a parametric yield of an integrated circuit with respect to parameters of a delay of an edge of a timing graph of the circuit, comprising:
- providing a computer infrastructure being operable to:
- conduct a statistical timing analysis;
- express a statistical circuit delay in terms of a delay of the edge;
- and
- compute a gradient of the statistical circuit delay with respect to parameters of the delay of the edge,
- wherein the gradient is computed using a non-numerical perturbation method.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.