Parametric yield improvement flow incorporating sigma to target distance

A computer program product for a circuit design process, including a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable program code which, when executed by a computer, performs a method comprising:

• receiving a circuit performance target value for a circuit design;
• simulating operation of a circuit corresponding to the circuit design, the simulating using one or more design points corresponding to at least a size of a particular circuit component in the circuit design;
• receiving a circuit performance result that includes information about the simulated operation of the circuit design using the one or more design points;
• determining a mean value of a distribution of the circuit performance result;
• and
• optimizing a difference between the mean value and the circuit performance target value with respect to a number of standard deviations of the distribution of the circuit performance result, the optimizing including adjusting at least the size of the particular circuit component in the circuit design.

In a circuit design process, a method comprising:

• performing an automatic sizing process to find a size value for a circuit to meet a specification, including:
• simulating the operation of the circuit to determine a distribution of a circuit performance result for a first design point;
• determining whether a second design point is within a predefined distance from the first design point;
• and
• in response to determining that the second design point is within the predefined distance from the first design point, using the simulation for the first design point for evaluating the second design point in an optimization process;
• wherein all steps are implemented using a processor unit.

A system for a design process of an integrated circuit, comprising:

• a user interface for viewing representations of the integrated circuit on a display;
• and
• at least one processing unit including circuitry to perform an automatic sizing process to find a size value for the integrated circuit to meet a specification, including simulating the operation of the circuit to determine a distribution of a circuit performance result for a first design point;
• determining whether a second design point is within a predefined distance from the first design point;
• and in response to determining that the second design point is within the predefined distance from the first design point, using the simulation for the first design point to evaluate the second design point in an optimization process.

A system for a design process of an integrated circuit, comprising:

• a user interface for viewing representations of the integrated circuit on a display;
• and
• at least one processing unit including circuitry to perform a circuit design process, including a method comprising:
• receiving a circuit performance target value for a circuit design;
• simulating operation of a circuit corresponding to the circuit design, the simulating using one or more design points corresponding to at least a size of a particular circuit component in the circuit design;
• receiving a circuit performance result that includes information about the simulated operation of the circuit design using the one or more design points;
• determining a mean value of a distribution of the circuit performance result;
• and
• optimizing a difference between the mean value and the circuit performance target value with respect to a number of standard deviations of the distribution of the circuit performance result, the optimizing including adjusting at least the size of the particular circuit component in the circuit design;
• wherein all steps are implemented using a processor unit.