Patent attributes
A computer/software tool for electronic design automation (EDA) extracts parasitics from a post-layout netlist file for an integrated circuit (IC) design and uses these parasitics to model circuit behavior between one or more excitation points and one or more observation points for a given circuit design characteristic. Sensitivities of that given circuit design characteristic to each constituent parasitic (or a group of parasitics that might be, for example, associated with a given structural element such as a layer) are then computed. The computer/software tool generates a visual display based on the relative sensitivities; for example, in one embodiment, relative sensitivities can be color-coded to permit a designer to visualize sources of problems in the IC design. In other embodiments, the sensitivities can be filtered and/or processed, e.g., so as to provide EDA driven assistance to changes to reduce excessive sensitivities or sensitivities to certain parasitics.
