Extracting the K-most Critical Paths in Multi-corner Multi-mode for Fast Static Timing Analysis

Abstract

Detecting a set of longest paths is one of the crucial steps in static timing analysis and optimization. Recently, the process variation during manufacturing affects performance of the circuit design due to nanometer feature size. Measuring the performance of a circuit prior to its fabrication requires a considerable amount of computation time because it requires multi-corner and multi-mode analysis with process variations. An efficient algorithm of detecting the K-most critical paths in multi-corner multi-mode static timing analysis (MCMM STA) is proposed in this paper. The ISCAS’85 benchmark suite using a 32 nm technology is applied to verify the proposed method. The proposed K-most critical paths detection method reduces about 25% of computation time on average.