Rapid estimation of temperature rise in wires due to Joule heating

摘要

A mechanism is provided for rapid estimation of temperature rise in wires due to Joule heating. The mechanism provides fast and accurate estimation of temperature rise in wires due to self heating. Fast estimation is important to handle millions of nets at the full-chip level. The mechanism models lateral heat flow by considering longitudinal heat flow along the wire and lateral thermal coupling to the other wires in the same level. Lateral heat flow can have a significant effect on the temperature rise. The mechanism also models vertical heat flow to the substrate and the heat sink by considering thermal conductivities of vias and inter-layer dielectric (ILD). The mechanism efficiently solves the thermal system to enable physical design optimizations (e.g., wire sizing, etc.) for fixing electromigration violations.