Power grid optimization with consideration of timing violation by IR drop

Abstract

With the advent of super deep submicron age, the circuit performance is strongly impacted by the process variation. Power grid optimization which considers the timing error risk caused by the variation becomes very important for the stable and high-speed operation of the system. Most of conventional power grid optimization algorithms use the IR drop as their objective function. However, the real goal for optimizing the IR drop is eliminating the timing error risk by it. Thus, we propose a new approach which uses the ldquotiming error risk caused by the IR droprdquo as its direct objective function. The process variation is also considered in the timing model. The new optimization method obtains variation tolerant and high quality results efficiently.