Process variation aware clock tree routing

Abstract

Fast progress on VLSI technology makes clock skew more susceptible to process variations. We propose DME/BST based algorithms for clock tree routing to improve skew tolerance to process variations. The worst case skew due to process variations is estimated and employed to guide the decision making during the routing. Our method can be applied to general non-zero skew requirements. Minimizing total wirelength is considered as a secondary objective at the same time. Experimental results on benchmark circuits demonstrate great improvement on process variation tolerance through our algorithms.