Reliability-driven layout decompaction for electromigration failure avoidance in complex mixed-signal IC designs

The negative effect of electromigration on signal and power line lifetime and functional reliability is an increasingly important problem for the physical design of integrated circuits. We present a new approach that addresses this electromigration issue by considering current density and inhomogeneous current-flow within arbitrarily shaped metallization patterns during physical design. Our proposed methodology is based on a post-route modification of critical layout structures that utilizes current-density data from a previously performed current-density verification. It is especially tailored to overcome the lack of current-flow consideration within existing routing tools. We also present experimental results obtained after successfully integrating our methodology into a commercial IC design flow.