A Static Method for Analyzing Hotspot Distribution on the LSI

Abstract

Performance degradation caused by high IR-drop in normal functional mode of LSI can be avoided by improving the power supply network in the layout design phase. However, while IR-drop increases much more in test mode than in normal functional mode, excessive IR-drop in test mode is not appropriately considered in the layout design phase. Excessive IR-drop in test mode causes over-testing, which wrongly determines a fault free LSI in normal functional mode to be faulty. In this work, we propose a method for analyzing high IR-drop areas (hotspot distribution), which is necessary to effectively and efficiently reduce excessive IR-drop.