DFM: Impact analysis in a high performance design

Layout context effects play a significant role in determining circuit performance in advanced technology nodes. In this paper, a study of the common design practices to tackle the increasing process variations in advanced CMOS technologies is also done. We highlight a method by which we have tackled the challenge of modeling these effects in the critical paths of a large System-on-Chip (SoC) design. We describe an approach to handle these variations when analyzing clock trees and data paths for design timing. The methodology models the true cell context in design layout to comprehend the impact of context specific process variations.