An optimal simultaneous diode/jumper insertion algorithm for antenna fixing

Abstract

As technology enters the nanometer territory, the antenna effect plays an important role in determining the yield and reliability of a VLSI circuit. Diode insertion and jumper insertion are the most effective techniques to fix the antenna effect. However, due to the increasing design complexity and the limited routing resource, applying diode or jumper insertion alone cannot achieve a high antenna fixing rate. In this paper, we give a polynomial-time antenna violation detection/fixing algorithm by simultaneous diode/jumper insertion with minimum cost, based on a minimum-cost networkflow formulation. Experimental results show that our algorithm consistently achieves much higher antenna fixing rates than the state-of-the-art jumper insertion and diode insertion algorithms alone.

Recent Research and Emerging Challenges in Physical Design for Manufacturability/Reliability

“…Therefore, in order to minimize the cost of fixing the antenna violations, the interaction between diode insertion and jumper insertion should be considered. Based on a minimum-cost network-flow formulation, Jiang and Chang [18] presented a polynomial-time optimal simultaneous diode/jumper insertion algorithm for antenna violation fixing, which achieves much higher antenna fixing rates than the other works with jumper insertion or diode insertion alone.…”

“…Jiang and Chang [18] defined the cost function composed of the total wirelength of extension wires (for diodes) and the total number of jumpers to minimize the total delay. If the objective is changed or a more precise delay model is used to calculate the induced total delay, the cost function for the optimization problem may be different from that in [18]. Furthermore, new algorithms may be needed to solve the optimization problem.…”