From Process Corners to Statistical Circuit Design Methodology: Opportunities and Challenges

In this paper, we will focus on the problem of modeling global or die-to-die variation in semiconductor devices. We will demonstrate that the process corner-based approach for modeling global variation, which has been the dominant approach for design validation, has fundamental limitations in predicting the circuit performance variation. We will then show how a full statistical model of variation can accurately predict circuit behavior and discuss some of the challenges in moving from a corner-based design to statistical simulations.