Combining iterative heuristic optimization and uncertainty analysis methods for robust parameter design

A number of investigators have pointed out that products and processes lack quality because of performance inconsistency, which is often due to uncontrollable parameters in the manufacturing process or product usage. Robust design methods are aimed at finding product/process designs that are less sensitive to parameter variation. Robust design of computer simulations requires a large number of runs, which are very time consuming. A novel methodology for robust design is presented in this article. It integrates an iterative heuristic optimization method with uncertainty analysis to achieve effective variability reductions, exploring a large parameter domain with an accessible number of simulations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this methodology, the robust design of a 0.15 μm CMOS device is shown.