Time domain sensitivity of high‐speed VLSI interconnects

Abstract An adjoint method based on the asymptotic wave‐form evaluation (AWE) technique is described for the time domain sensitivity analysis of VLSI interconnect networks that contain linear lumped anddistributedelements. the network sensitivity, which is approximated by a set of poles and residues sensitivities, can be evaluated efficiently with respect to all network components and interconnect parameters. Owing to therecursiverelationship between the time moments of distributed networks, the conventional adjoint approach could not be applied directly. Instead, an alternative approach is presented which solves this problem by introducting the concept ofadjoint momentsfor networks with distributed elements. Examples and comparisons with the sensitivity determined by perturbation are presented. the proposed technique is useful for the identification of critical circuit elements and the performance optimization of high‐speed VLSI designs.