Basics and Beyond: STA - Static Timing Analysis

Master STA from Novice to Sign-off Timing closure. Learn Setup/Hold, SDC, OCV, PVT, LVF, MMMC, SPEF, TWF, Timing Reports

What you'll learn
- Understand the fundamental concepts of Setup Time and Hold Time, the core of all timing analysis.
- Learn to write essential SDC (Synopsys Design Constraints) for clocks and I/O paths.
- Confidently analyze and interpret real STA reports to find violations (WNS, TNS).
- Grasp how timing libraries (.lib), parasitics (.spef), and On-Chip Variation (OCV) impact results.

Requirements
- A basic understanding of digital logic is helpful.
- Even NO! don't worry we got you covered, We will start from the very beginning!

Description
Have you ever wondered how companiesTOP MNCscan guarantee that their chips, with billions of transistors switching billions of times per second, will actually work at the advertised speed? The answer is Static Timing Analysis (STA), and it's the single most critical sign-off step in modern chip design.

This course is a Basic, practical, straightforward guide to mastering STA from the ground up. We'll skip the unnecessary jargon and focus on what really matters. My goal is to teach you the concepts and skills you'll actually use in the industry, whether you're designing an ASIC or an FPGA. We'll explore why a timing path fails and, more importantly, how to read the reports to understand the problem.

By the end of this course, you won't just know the theory - you'll be able to confidently analyze timing reports and understand the impact of your design choices.

What we will cover:

Section 1:Fundamentals of STA

Lecture 1:Introduction - Why Timing Rules Silicon?

Lecture 2:Design Flow & Where STA Fits (ASIC/FPGA)

Lecture 3:What is STA? (vs. DTA)

Section 2:Core Concepts of STA

Lecture 4:CMOS Logic & Standard Cells in a Timing Context

Lecture 5:Clock Period, Clock Latency, Duty Cycle and Clock Types

Lecture 6:Propagation Delay, Slew, Skew - Effects & Trade-offs

Lecture 7:Arrival Time (AT), Required Time (RT), and Slack Basics

Lecture 8:Introduction of Setup and Hold Times

Lecture 9:Timing Arcs & Unateness; Path Delay; Min/Max Paths

Lecture 10:Clock Domains & Operating Conditions (PVT), Jitter, Uncertainty

Section 3:Delay & Slack Calculations

Lecture 11:End-to-End Path Delay and Path Types

Lecture 12:Setup Slack Calculation

Lecture 13:Hold Slack Calculation

Lecture 14:Setup and Hold Worked Examples (paths: in2reg, reg2reg, reg2out) and Fixes

Section 4:Special Timing Scenarios

Lecture 15:Time Borrowing in Latch-Based Designs

Lecture 16:Multicycle, Half-Cycle Paths & False Paths

Lecture 17:Critical Path & Metastability - Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

Lecture 18:Minimum Pulse Width Checks - Clock Quality in STA

Lecture 19:Recovery & Removal Checks - Asynchronous Resets in STA

Lecture 20:Clock Gating and Integrated Clock Gating (ICG) - Checks in STA

Section 5:Libraries, Constraints & Models

Lecture 21:Inputs and Outputs of STA

Lecture 22:Non-Linear Delay, CCS and ECSM models

Lecture 23:Power in Libraries: Active, Internal, Leakage

Section 6:Interconnect, SPEF and Signal Integrity

Lecture 24:Interconnect Delay Models & Pre Layout and Post Layout Parasitics in STA

Lecture 25:Extracted Parasitics & SPEF (what’s in it, how tools use it)

Lecture 26:Signal Integrity in STA: Crosstalk Glitches

Section 7:Advanced Sign-off & Closure Techniques

Lecture 27:OCV, AOCV, POCV, SOCV, LVF and Derates in Timing Analysis

Lecture 28:CPPR (Common Path Pessimism Removal) and Its Impact

Lecture 29:Useful Skew: Clock Push / Clock Pull & Closure Tricks

Lecture 30:Graph Based Analysis (GBA) and Path Based Analysis (PBA) in STA Engine

Section 8:STA Environment & Reports

Lecture 31:Building the STA Environment: SDC Clocks, IO Constraints, Virtual Clocks

Lecture 32:WNS & TNS; Reading the Timing Reports Across Tools (PrimeTime, Tempus, etc)

Section 9:Wrap-Up & Industry Readiness

Lecture 33:STA Recap, Common Pitfalls & Industry Relevance

This course is for anyone who wants a crucial, in-demand skill in the semiconductor industry. If you want to design, verify, or implement digital hardware, this is knowledge you need to have.

Who this course is for:
- VLSI Aspirants, Students, Freshers and VLSI Professionals and Anyone with keen interest in Electronics.
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