Apple Inc.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

Apurva Soni

Edgardo F Klass

Antonietta Oliva

Xin Gu

James E Burnette, Ii

Anshu Mani

Suketu Desai

Avnish Varma

Matthew J T Page

Shivani Sharma

The present embodiments relate to critical path aware voltage drop analysis. A method can include identifying a number of cell instances with largest individual power consumption values. The method can include identifying, by performing static timing analysis, a first number of circuit timing paths of an integrated circuit design with largest timing violations. The method can include identifying, by performing the static timing analysis, a second number of circuit timing paths of the integrated circuit design. Each of the second number of circuit timing paths has a timing violation and is formed by one or more of the identified number of cell instances. The method can include generating logic state toggle vectors by propagating logic states through the first and second numbers of circuit timing paths. The method can include performing voltage drop analysis on the integrated circuit design using the generated logic state toggle vectors.

Critical path aware voltage drop analysis of an integrated circuit

In an embodiment, an aging analysis tool may be configured to identify transistors that are expected to experience aging effects according to worst case stress vectors and/or designer identified worst case conditions. The aging analysis tool may modify a representation of the circuit (e.g. a netlist), replacing the identified transistors with aged transistors (e.g. by modifying parameters of the transistors in the netlist). The aging analysis tool may process the modified netlist over a range of conditions at which the circuit is expected to operate, to ensure that the design meets specifications after aging. The process may be repeated until the aged design meets specifications (with circuit modifications made by the designer to improve the design).

Versatile method and tool for simulation of aged transistors

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Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Apurva Soni