Single- and Multi-Voltage IC Circuit Thermal Runaway Analysis and Application

To predict thermal runaway triggering condition of single-and multi-voltage IC designs, we modeled leakage current as an exponential function of temperature and developed the threshold temperature and the corresponding leakage current calculations. We demonstrated that temperature change induced total leakage change of an IC mixed signal circuit can be approximated by the sum of standard cell and memory circuit leakage changes for the purpose of thermal runaway analysis. Standard cell total leakage current at various temperature can be scaled from the known leakage at a reference temperature. Multi-voltage IC circuit thermal runaway threshold value calculations is also discussed herein. Examples are provided to illustrate design applications of thermal runaway condition calculations.