Method and apparatus for improved integrated circuit temperature evaluation and IC design

摘要

A method and apparatus generates thermal partitions for metal interconnects of an integrated circuit, based on interconnect self heat data and mutual heat data. Each of the thermal partitions includes data identifying thermally related interconnects and respective temperature values associated with each of the thermally related interconnects. Thermally related partitions that can be computed efficiently and simultaneously and the results then integrated using superposition for the full chips.

主权项

1. A method, performed by an apparatus, for determining integrated circuit (IC) thermal values for metal interconnects of the IC comprising:
generating thermal partitions for metal interconnects of the integrated circuit, based on interconnect self heat data and mutual heat data, wherein each of the thermal partitions comprises data identifying thermally related interconnects and respective temperature values associated with each of the thermally related interconnects; wherein generating thermal partitions comprises:
determining a per interconnect temperature for an interconnect of interest using the interconnect self heat data and mutual heat data from interconnects at a desired distance from the interconnect for all interconnects per interconnect layer;forming a thermal region that is comprised of aggressor interconnects to the interconnect of interest when the interconnect temperature is determined to be above a threshold;repeating the determining and forming operation to produce multiple thermal regions; andcombining intersecting regions that have a common interconnect to form a thermal partition.