TED thermo electrical designer: a new physical design verification tool

Although several types of design verification tools have recently been added to the IC design flow, adequate tools for thermal analysis during the design process do not exist. In the absence of thermal analysis, not only can excessive hot spots affect reliability, but important differences between expected and actual performances may compromise circuit functionality. We have introduced a new physical design verification tool, TED, integrating thermal analysis into the design flow. Starting from the extracted view, this tool automatically verifies for each device its temperature and power density, and checks whether maximum ratings are not exceeded. It yields a circuit simulation accounting for realistic temperature distributions without modifying device models.