Enhanced analog "yields" cost-effective systems-on-chip

As device feature sizes of analog MOS circuits are reduced to the deep-submicron ranges, the effect of process variability on circuit performance and reliability is magnified. Yield is becoming more and more critical and statistical methods are required to simulate the effect of process variability to enable circuit designers to "design-in" quality through circuit robustness. More work is needed particularly in the areas of modeling and statistical CAD of submicron, low-voltage mixed-signal ICs. The characterization work needed to tune models to specific VLSI technology, implementation into the SPICE and APLAC simulators, and use in design and optimization of analog and digital VLSI circuits.