SPICE Validation of Dynamic Voltage Drops from SigmaDVD

Dynamic voltage drop (DVD) is an escalating problem as technology nodes shrink. Traditional DVD analysis methods lack necessary coverage to identify the location and magnitude of DVD hotspots. New tools, such as the SigmaDVD technology in Ansys RedHawk-SC, aim to improve DVD accuracy and coverage. In this work, we present results from a circuit targeted to validate SigmaDVD results. This circuit is simulated in SPICE with a fully extracted power grid, using non-Ansys tools. This validation method has been used to enhance the algorithms used by SigmaDVD, resulting in significant accuracy improvement. Analysis of one specific enhancement will be demonstrated in detail. The importance of properly accounting for correlated activity will be also discussed.