STAX: statistical crosstalk target set compaction

ABSTRACT

This paper presents STAX, a crosstalk target set compaction framework to reduce the complexity of the crosstalk ATPG process by pruning non-fault-producing targets. In general, existing pruning techniques do not employ their processes in a cost-effective manner. Neither do they handle process variations properly. To address the first weakness, this paper presents a framework to determine a sequence of available analysis and pruning tool invocations to prune as many of the crosstalk targets as fast as possible. As a result, an initially enormous collection of crosstalk targets is usually reduced to a very small set of targets via a vectorless process. A statistical static timing analyzer is developed and embedded to address the second shortcoming of existing approaches. Experimental results on ISCAS'85 benchmark demonstrate that STAX greatly improves the runtime compared to other crosstalk target pruning methodologies, including ATPG, with no prior target set compaction.

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INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
ATPG, compaction degree, fault-producing target, pruning power, safe target, statistical static timing analyzer