Rapid Design Iterations with Monte Carlo Accuracy

This chapter explores how to efficiently design circuits accounting for statistical process variation, with target yields of two to three sigma (95–99.86 %). This yield range is appropriate for typical analog, RF, and I/O circuits. This chapter reviews various design flows to handle statistical process variations, and compares these flows in terms of speed and accuracy. It shows how a sigma-driven corner flow has excellent speed and accuracy characteristics. It then describes the key algorithms needed to enable the sigma-driven corner flow, namely sigmadriven corner extraction and confidence-based statistical verification. Some enabling technologies include Monte Carlo, Optimal Spread Sampling, confidence intervals, and 3r corner extraction.