Critical area (computing)

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In integrated circuit design, a critical area is a section of a circuit design wherein a particle of a particular size can cause a failure.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/171820 |author=D. M. H. Walker |title=[1992] Proceedings International Conference on Wafer Scale Integration |chapter=Critical area analysis |year=1992 |pages=281–290 |doi=10.1109/ICWSI.1992.171820 |publisher=IEEE|isbn=0-8186-2482-5 |s2cid=110439292 }} It measures the sensitivity of the circuit to a reduction in yield.{{cite journal |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1052403 |author=A. V. Ferris-Prabhu |title=Modeling the critical area in yield forecasts |journal=IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=874–878 |year=1985 |doi=10.1109/JSSC.1985.1052403 |publisher=IEEE|bibcode=1985IJSSC..20..874F |url-access=subscription }}

The critical area $(A\_c)$ on a single layer integrated circuit design is given by:

:$$A\_c\; =\backslash int\_\{0\}^\{\backslash infty\}\; A(r)D(r)dr$$

where $A(r)$ is the area in which a defect of radius $r$ will cause a failure, and $D(r)$ is the density function of said defect.{{cite book |doi=10.1145/332357.332390 |last=Papadopoulou |first=Evanthia |title=Proceedings of the 2000 international symposium on Physical design |chapter=Critical area computation for missing material defects in VLSI circuits |year=2000 |pages=140–146|isbn=1581131917 |s2cid=15802958 |doi-access=free }}