A Timing Methodology for Metal Variation

Chul Rim (Samsung)

While the EDA industry has been introducing advanced technologies such as LVF and parametric OCV method to consider FEOL variation, BEOL variation has been relatively neglected so far. However, BEOL variation is also a major contributor for chip variation. In 2018, Samsung introduced POCV-like method as a result of EDA collaboration to consider via resistance in a statistical manne. Metal variation is still a challenging topic. In this presentation, we show the main contributor of metal variation and how it can cause chip failure. Then we introduce a recent collaboration with EDA and its hurdles. In addition, an in-house approach is introduced.