Statistical timing analysis of coupled interconnects using quadratic delay-change characteristics

With continuing scaling of CMOS process, process variations in the form of die-to-die and within-die variations become significant which cause timing uncertainty. Statistical design methods have been proposed in the past to model the impact of process variations. However, all the existing methods deal almost exclusively with modeling delay variations of logical gates or physical variations of interconnect wires. This paper proposes a method of analytically analyzing statistical behavior of multiple coupled interconnects with an uncertain signal arrival time at each interconnect input (aggressors and the victim). The method utilizes delay-change characteristics due to changes in relative arrival time between an aggressor and the victim. The results show that the proposed method is able to accurately predict delay variations through a coupled interconnect.