CIRCUIT SENSITIVITY TO INTERCONNECT VARIATION

Deep submicron technology makes interconnect one of the main factors d etermining the circuit performance. Previous work shows that interconn ect parameters exhibit a significant amount of spatial variation. In t his work, we develop approaches to study the influence of the intercon nect variation on circuit performance and to evaluate the circuit sens itivity to interconnect parameters. First, an accurate interconnect mo deling technique is presented, and an interconnect model library is de veloped, Then, we explore an approach using parameterized interconnect models to study circuit sensitivity via a ring oscillator circuit, Fi nally, we present an alternative approach using statistical experiment al design techniques to study the sensitivity of a large and complicat ed circuit to interconnect variations.