Aging-Aware Design Methods for Reliable Analog Integrated Circuits using Operating Point-Dependent Degradation

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is on the development and implementation of aging-aware design methods, which are suitable to satisfy current needs of analog circuit design. Based on the well known $\gm/\ID$ sizing methodology, an innovative tool-assisted aging-aware design approach is proposed, which is able to estimate shifts in circuit characteristics using mostly hand calculation schemes. The developed concept of an operating point-dependent degradation leads to the definition of an aging-aware sensitivity, which is compared to currently available degradation simulation flows and proves to be efficient in the estimation of circuit degradation. Using the aging-aware sensitivity, several analog circuits are investigated and optimized towards higher reliability. Finally, results are presented for numerous target specifications.