Generation of Lifetime-Aware Pareto-Optimal Fronts Using a Stochastic Reliability Simulator
A. Toro-Frias1, P. Saraza-Canflanca1, F. Passos1, P. Martin-Lloret1, R. Castro-Lopez1, E. Roca1, J. Martin-Martinez2, R. Rodriguez2, M. Nafria2 and F. V. Fernandez1,a
1Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla, IMSE-CNM (CSIC/Universidad de Sevilla), Sevilla, Spain
afrancisco.fernandez@imse-cnm.csic.es
2Electronic Engineering Department (REDEC) group, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Barcelona, Spain
ABSTRACT
Process variability and time-dependent variability have become major concerns in deeply-scaled technologies. Two of the most important time-dependent variability phenomena are Bias Temperature Instability (BTI) and Hot-Carrier Injection (HCI), which can critically shorten the lifetime of circuits. Both BTI and HCI reveal a discrete and stochastic behavior in the nanometer scale, and, while process variability has been extensively treated, there is a lack of design methodologies that address the joint impact of these two phenomena on circuits. In this work, an automated and timeefficient design methodology that takes into account both process and time-dependent variability is presented. This methodology is based on the utilization of lifetime-aware Pareto-Optimal Fronts (POFs). The POFs are generated with a multi-objective optimization algorithm linked to a stochastic simulator. Both the optimization algorithm and the simulator have been specifically tailored to reduce the computational cost of the accurate evaluation of the impact on a circuit of both sources of variability.
Keywords: Reliability, Aging, BTI, HCI, Lifetime, Simulation, Optimization, Pareto front.
