Novel physics-based tool-prototype for electromigration assessment in commercial-grade power delivery networks

A recently developed novel methodology for electromigration (EM) failure assessment in power/ground grids of integrated circuits is employed in the electronic design automation tool prototype. The tool performs the analysis of stress evolution in interconnect trees for detecting EM-induced voiding locations and tracks resistance increase in the voided wires based on a physics-based model of voiding kinetics. Increased resistances of the branches of power/ground networks lead to a voltage drop increase in grid nodes. The instance in time when a designer-specified voltage-drop threshold is reached defines the EM-induced time-to-failure. Monte-Carlo simulation, performed around the core engine that simulates the stress over time using randomly generated atomic diffusivities and critical stress values, leads to the mean-time-to-failure of the grid, along with voiding probabilities of the interconnect branches.