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Algorithms for design for quality of integrated circuits
Abstract
The main thesis objective is to develop new, efficient algorithms for designing high quality Integrated Circuits (ICs). The following three major areas of Design for Quality are studied: 1. Quality Measures and their applications. 2.Optimum assignment of circuit parameter tolerances using the Top-Down design approach. 3.Yield maximization using the Monte Carlo method. In these areas, new methodologies, measures and algorithms are presented, as follows: for the first area, a new general IC quality measure is proposed, utilizing scaled standard deviations of IC performance functions yi, and the scaled departures of yi from their target values. In a practical example, it is shown to be more suitable for "on-target" design with variability reduction than the previous measures based on CplCpk indices. For the Top-Down design, a new approach to system level Statistical Design for Quality (DFQ) is proposed, based on a top-down design methodology. The methodology uses statistical specification propagation techniques which allow optimal assignment of statistical. functional block specifications based on cost and quality criteria. This approach introduces, for the first time, a DFQ-based formalization of specification propagation down the system hierarchy, thus introducing DFQ to the system level design. It focuses maximum effort on "trouble spots" and areas of design which optimize system performance, and can be used with little statistical information on the functional block level, which is in contrast to the commonly used bottom-up DFQ approach. Also, it allows designers to study the influence of various types of interand intra-block correlations on the system performance and quality, and shows which blocks and/or block parameters are critical, early in the design phase. An initial successful implementation, using an MOSFET-C bandpass filter, is described and results are presented. For yield maximization using the Monte Carlo simulations, an original new formula for the estimation of the yield gradient is introduced for the cases not considered before. It takes into consideration the correlations between circuit parameters as well as the proportionality of parameter standard deviations with respect to the corresponding nominal values.
Description
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Citation
Achab, Abdenour (1995). Algorithms for design for quality of integrated circuits. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1995 -THESIS -A34.
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