Survival of VLSI design - coping with device variability and uncertainty

◆ Trends/Challenges ■ Variability increasing as Design/Manufacturing interface complexity rising. ◆ More design rules, more 2nd order effects, more systematic variations, more correction steps... ■ Current techniques are insufficient ◆ Abstractions no longer good enough ◆ Predictability is poor ■ Ability to confidently bound performance is degrading. ■ Frequent model/hardware mismatch. ◆ Required Action ■ Better, targeted measurements through characterization structures ■ Hardware-driven variation-enabled modeling ◆ Corners not sufficient any more - statistical timing ■ Technology aware circuit and PD tools ◆ Variation tolerance in design ◆ Technology aware physical design, redundancy, adaptation.