Modeling and simulation for VLSI

The use of computer-aids in VLSI design has witnessed explosive growth, especially in the last decade. Beginning with the areas of circuit simulation and chip layout, the use of computer-aids has proliferated and now embraces high-level functional design and chip compilation at one extreme and fabrication equipment modeling and control at the other. This talk is intended to both highlight the broad issues of CAD for VLSI as well as specific concerns with technology and device modeling. The domains of applicability will be defined and contrasted. The growing industrial emphasis on high performance and application specific IC's both mandate the need for better CAD tools. The specific area of technology CAD is essential in process development and to aid understanding and visualization of details that are difficult to measure. The proliferation of workstations and the development of more CPU intensive algorithms both suggest the need for a diversity of solution methods, commensurate with the hardware constraints. The spectrum of algorithms for technology CAD will be discussed including analytical as well as numerical and even parallel computation methods. Numerous examples will be used to illustrate specific results as well as trends.