Probabilistic Injection-Based Reliability Evaluation for Correlated Input Vectors in Sequential Circuits

As CMOS technology continues to scale, the associated reduction in device reliability margins has made accurate reliability evaluation a critical component of digital circuit design. Traditional methods typically assess reliability based on the average behavior of multiple input vectors (MIVs), while neglecting the significant variation introduced by individual input vector (IIV). In practice, different IVs often exhibit heterogeneous reliability distributions, and in sequential circuits with temporal correlation, these differences may span several orders of magnitude. This paper proposes a probabilistic injection framework for reliability analysis that explicitly considers input correlation in a sequential circuit. The method enables both fine-grained evaluation for each IIV and global assessment across MIVs, thereby offering a comprehensive understanding of not only average circuit reliability but also reliability bounds under specific input conditions. Experimental results on ISCAS’89, ITC’99, IWLS’05 and reference benchmark circuits demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves higher accuracy and greater stability compared to traditional methods.