Voltus Voice: Breaking Ground with Voltus InsightAI—AI’s Debut in EM-IR Analysis

Voltus IC Power Integrity Solution is a power integrity and analysis signoff solution that is integrated with Cadence's full suite of design implementation and signoff tools to deliver the industry’s fastest design closure flow. The aim of this blog series is to broadcast the voices of different experts on how design engineers can effectively use the diverse Voltus technologies to achieve high-performance, accuracy, and capacity for next-gen chip designs.

In today's hyper-connected world, where devices are becoming increasingly complex and compact, the significance of power integrity cannot be overstated. The escalating levels of integration and complexity inherent in advanced node designs introduce additional sources of power integrity challenges. With more functionality packed in smaller footprints, the demand for power continues to escalate, placing greater strain on power distribution networks (PDNs).

Power Integrity Predicaments

With a significant number of EM-IR violations at signoff, designers face the formidable task of ensuring robust power delivery. A large 5nm or 3nm SOC could easily have 500K to a million violations at signoff, which results in most of the violations getting waived, risking performance and design failures. Solving this challenge requires an automated shift-left solution that addresses IR drop in the implementation phase of the design process.

Traditionally, IR-driven implementation encounters two key hurdles:

• The size and coupled nature of the power network make IR drop analysis computationally very expensive, preventing it from being used frequently for incremental analysis within the design implementation process.
• Increasingly, with advanced nodes, the IR drop of a cell is determined more by aggressor cells in the vicinity rather than by self-induced IR drop from its own switching. Almost 80 percent of the IR drop can be due to aggressors. Therefore, just directly trying to fix the IR violations doesn’t solve the problem unless the true root cause is addressed.

Voltus InsightAI: Transforming Power Integrity Challenges to Opportunities

Solving these two key challenges is a must for an effective in-design solution for IR prevention and fixing. Voltus InsightAI is the industry’s first generative AI technology that solves these two challenges. This new breakthrough technology automatically identifies the root cause of the EM-IR drop violations early in the design process. Subsequently, it selects and implements the most efficient fixes to improve power, performance, and area (PPA). Using Voltus InsightAI, customers can fix up to 95 percent of violations prior to signoff, leading to a 10X productivity improvement in EM-IR closure.

The key features of Voltus InsightAI are:

1. Fast IR Inferencing Engine (Learn): Leverages proprietary neural networks to build models of the power grid and performs extremely fast incremental IR analysis to provide instant feedback on the impact of design changes.
2. IR Drop Diagnostics (Discover): Uses deep learning to discover the root cause of IR drop problems and quickly identifies aggressors, victims, and resistance bottlenecks. It uses electrical, spatial, and timing factors for predicting IR drop issues during design.
3. Multi-Method Fixing (Fix): Utilizes decision-tree methods to perform timing and design rule check (DRC)-aware fixes of IR drop, using multiple methods like placement, grid reinforcement, routing, and engineering change orders (ECOs). Voltus InsightAI selects precise fixing methods based on the root cause of the problem, driving better utilization and improved PPA.
4. Fully Integrated Solution (Evolve): Builds custom applications to help mitigate IR problems across the design flow. Voltus InsightAI is fully integrated with Cadence’s solutions, including the Cadence Innovus Implementation System, the Cadence Tempus Timing Solution, the Cadence Voltus IC Power Integrity Solution, and the Cadence Pegasus Verification System for the complete IR design closure from implementation to signoff​ that is timing- and DRC-aware, as illustrated in the following figure.

With the breakthrough capabilities of Voltus InsightAI, designers can overcome the immense challenge of designing robust power delivery networks in modern-day SOCs and unlock the full potential of advanced node technologies.

Voltus InsightAI was launched in November 2023 and has garnered enthusiastic endorsements from our early partners like MediaTek, Arm, and Cisco, who saw outstanding results in their use of the tool. Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we delve into the breakthrough technology behind it in greater detail. Exciting updates await!

Related Resources

For more information on Cadence digital design and signoff products and services, visit www.cadence.com/go/voltushs.

About Voltus Voice

“Voltus Voice” showcases our product capabilities and features and how they empower engineers to meet time-to-market goals for the complex, advanced-node SoCs that are designed for next-gen smart devices. In this monthly blog series, we also share important news, developments, and updates from the Voltus space.