IP Library Patent Application 16688028
Patent Application
App. No. 16/688,028

ADAPTIVE PENALTY TERM DETERMINATIONS IN APPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM COMPUTING TO ELECTRONIC DESIGN AUTOMATION PROCESSES

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Patent No.
US None
App. No.
16/688,028
Abstract

A system may include a quantum model engine configured to generate a quantum computing model to represent an electronic design automation (EDA) process for a circuit design. The EDA process may be a multi-patterning process to assign colors to geometric elements of the circuit design, and the quantum computing model may include an objective function that specifies a cost value for a given state of the quantum computing model. Generation of the quantum computing model may include adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design. The quantum model engine may also be configured to generate a color assignment for the geometric elements of the circuit design through the quantum computing model. The system may also include a manufacture support engine configured to use the color assignment to support manufacture of circuit layers of the circuit design through multiple manufacturing steps.

Claims (62)

1 . A method comprising:

by a computing system:

generating a quantum computing model to represent an electronic design automation (EDA) process for a circuit design, wherein:

the EDA process comprises a multi-patterning process to assign colors to geometric elements of the circuit design;

the quantum computing model comprises an objective function that specifies a cost value for a given state of the quantum computing model, and wherein generating the quantum computing model comprises adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design; and

generating a color assignment for the geometric elements of the circuit design through the quantum computing model; and

using the color assignment to support manufacture of circuit layers of the circuit design through multiple manufacturing steps.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design comprises:

identifying a given geometric element in the circuit design with a highest number of coloring constraints to other geometric elements in the circuit design; and

setting the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to the highest number of coloring constraints for the given geometric element.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design comprises:

relaxing at least some coloring constraints of the multi-patterning process;

computing an output for the relaxed multi-patterning process on the circuit design; and

setting the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to a number of constraint violations in the computed output for the relaxed multi-patterning process on the circuit design.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the EDA process comprises a triple-patterning process and wherein adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design comprises:

performing, as the circuit analysis, a double-patterning process on the circuit design;

determining a number of constraint violations in an output of the double-patterning process; and

setting the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to the number of constraint violations in the output of the double-patterning process on the circuit design.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the adaptively determined penalty term suppresses some, but not all, non-physical states from occurring in the quantum computing model, wherein the non-physical states correspond to outputs to the multi-patterning process that represent prohibited solutions of the multi-patterning process.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the prohibited solutions of the multi-patterning process comprise outputs in which a geometric element is assigned more than one color, a geometric element is assigned no color, or combinations of both.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the color assignment comprises determining a ground state with a minimum cost value for the quantum computing model through quantum annealing.

8 . A system comprising:

a quantum model engine configured to:

generate a quantum computing model to represent an electronic design automation (EDA) process for a circuit design, wherein:

the EDA process comprises a multi-patterning process to assign colors to geometric elements of the circuit design;

the quantum computing model comprises an objective function that specifies a cost value for a given state of the quantum computing model, and wherein generating the quantum computing model comprises adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design; and

generate a color assignment for the geometric elements of the circuit design through the quantum computing model; and

a manufacture support engine configured to use the color assignment to support manufacture of circuit layers of the circuit design through multiple manufacturing steps.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the quantum model engine is configured to adaptively determine a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design by:

identifying a given geometric element in the circuit design with a highest number of coloring constraints to other geometric elements in the circuit design; and

setting the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to the highest number of coloring constraints for the given geometric element.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the quantum model engine is configured to adaptively determine a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design by:

relaxing at least some coloring constraints of the multi-patterning process;

computing an output for the relaxed multi-patterning process on the circuit design; and

setting the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to a number of constraint violations in the computed output for the relaxed multi-patterning process on the circuit design.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the EDA process comprises a triple-patterning process and wherein the quantum model engine is configured to adaptively determine a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design by:

performing, as the circuit analysis, a double-patterning process on the circuit design;

determining a number of constraint violations in an output of the double-patterning process; and

setting the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to the number of constraint violations in the output of the double-patterning process on the circuit design.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the adaptively determined penalty term suppresses some, but not all, non-physical states from occurring in the quantum computing model, wherein the non-physical states correspond to outputs to the multi-patterning process that represent prohibited solutions of the multi-patterning process.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the prohibited solutions of the multi-patterning process comprise outputs in which a geometric element is assigned more than one color, a geometric element is assigned no color, or combinations of both.

14 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the quantum model engine is configured to generate the color assignment comprises determining a ground state with a minimum cost value for the quantum computing model through quantum annealing.

15 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computing system to:

generate a quantum computing model to represent an electronic design automation (EDA) process for a circuit design, wherein:

the EDA process comprises a multi-patterning process to assign colors to geometric elements of the circuit design;

the quantum computing model comprises an objective function that specifies a cost value for a given state of the quantum computing model, and wherein generating the quantum computing model comprises adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design; and

generate a color assignment for the geometric elements of the circuit design through the quantum computing model; and

use the color assignment to support manufacture of circuit layers of the circuit design through multiple manufacturing steps.

16 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions to adaptively determine a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design comprise instructions to:

identify a given geometric element in the circuit design with a highest number of coloring constraints to other geometric elements in the circuit design; and

set the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to the highest number of coloring constraints for the given geometric element.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions to adaptively determine a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design comprise instructions to:

relax at least some coloring constraints of the multi-patterning process;

compute an output for the relaxed multi-patterning process on the circuit design; and

set the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to a number of constraint violations in the computed output for the relaxed multi-patterning process on the circuit design.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the EDA process comprises a triple-patterning process and wherein the instructions to adaptively determining a penalty term in the objective function based on a circuit analysis of the circuit design comprise instructions to:

perform, as the circuit analysis, a double-patterning process on the circuit design;

determine a number of constraint violations in an output of the double-patterning process; and

set the penalty term in the objective function to be proportional to the number of constraint violations in the output of the double-patterning process on the circuit design.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the adaptively determined penalty term suppresses some, but not all, non-physical states from occurring in the quantum computing model, wherein the non-physical states correspond to outputs to the multi-patterning process that represent prohibited solutions of the multi-patterning process; and

wherein the prohibited solutions of the multi-patterning process comprise outputs in which a geometric element is assigned more than one color, a geometric element is assigned no color, or combinations of both.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions to generate the color assignment comprise instructions to determine a ground state with a minimum cost value for the quantum computing model through quantum annealing.

Assignments (2)
MERGER AND CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jul 9, 2021
From: MENTOR GRAPHICS CORPORATION; SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE INC.
To: SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE INC.
Reel/Frame 056799/0612 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 20, 2019
From: PIKUS, FEDOR G.; JAISWAL, SHASHANK
To: MENTOR GRAPHICS CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 051061/0514 →