Method and apparatus for sampling and predicting rare events in complex electronic devices, circuits and systems
US8155938B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 28, 2008 |
| Grant date | Apr 10, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 9, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2111/08
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The invention provides methods for enhancing circuit reliability under statistical process variation. For highly replicated circuits such as SRAMs and flip flops, a rare statistical event for one circuit may induce a not-so-rare system failure. To combat this, the invention discloses the method called “Statistical Blockade,” a Monte Carlo-type technique that allows the efficient filtering—blocking—of unwanted samples insufficiently rare in the tail distributions of interest, with speedups of 10-100×. Additionally, the core Statistical Blockade technique is further extended in a “recursive” or “bootstrap” formulation to create even greater efficiencies under a much wider variety of circuit performance metrics, in particular two-sided metrics such a Data Retention Voltage (DRV) which prior Monte Carlo techniques could not handle.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.