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Video s3
    Details
    Presenter(s)
    Mohammad Hajijafari Headshot
    Affiliation
    Affiliation
    Memorial University of Newfoundland
    Country
    Author(s)
    Affiliation
    Affiliation
    Memorial University of Newfoundland
    Display Name
    Mehrnaz Ahmadi
    Affiliation
    Affiliation
    Memorial University of Newfoundland
    Display Name
    Zhenxin Zhao
    Affiliation
    Affiliation
    Memorial University of Newfoundland
    Display Name
    Lihong Zhang
    Affiliation
    Affiliation
    Memorial University of Newfoundland
    Abstract

    The fogging effect, which always leads to pattern distortion in layout and in turn causes performance degradation, has been considered as a significant concern for wider adoption of electron beam lithography. In this work, we propose a reinforcement learning (RL) placement method that applies deep Q-learning to train a neural network as an agent. Different from the previous RL-based placement works, our proposed method uses a topological representation scheme that can advantageously render smaller search space in comparison to the currently popular absolute-coordinates-based representation. Our method focuses on the sensitive analog devices in mixed-signal ICs, which are better protected from potential variations due to fogging effects of other digital/analog portions.

    Slides
    • Fogging-Effect-Aware Mixed-Signal IC Placement with Reinforcement Learning (application/pdf)