Patent ID: 7685548

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of detecting potential forward-biased diode devices in an IC device design, the IC device design being described by a graphical representation having a plurality of geometric shapes including one or more geometric shapes each corresponding to an IC component and a plurality of geometric shapes each corresponding to a circuit node, the method comprising: simplifying the graphical representation as a function of a subset of said plurality of geometric shapes corresponding to a circuit node; selecting from the graphical representation one or more IC components that correspond to an anode diffusion in communication with a cathode diffusion for each circuit node remaining in the graphical representation; removing from the selected IC components one or more IC components having geometric shapes that are inconsistent with a potential forward-biased diode device the potential forward-biased diode device is a diode device having a voltage potential that is positive and greater than a threshold value; naming from the remaining IC components one or more IC components so as to cause each anode diffusion and each cathode diffusion in the graphical representation to correspond with one or more circuit nodes; selecting from the named IC components one or more IC components that correspond to a potential forward-biased diode device as a function of a threshold value, said selecting including identifying from the named IC components one or more IC components that correspond to a power-sequencing-sensitive (PSS) potential forward-biased diode device as a function of a combination of one or more circuit node values associated with the named IC components; and outputting an indicia of the potential forward-biased diodes.