In the design of integrated circuits, power network design is the analysis and design of on-chip conductor networks that distribute electrical power on a chip. As in all engineering, this involves tradeoffs - the network must have adequate performance, be sufficiently reliable, but should not use more resources than required. Function The power distribution network distributes power and ground voltages from pad locations to all devices in a design. Shrinking device dimensions, faster switching frequencies and increasing power consumption in deep sub-micrometer technologies cause large switching currents to flow in the power and ground networks which degrade performance and reliability. A robust power distribution network is essential to ensure reliable operation of circuits on a chip. Power supply integrity verification is a critical concern in high-performance designs. Design considerations Due to the resistance of the interconnects constituting the network, there is a voltage drop across the network, commonly referred to as the IR-drop. The package supplies currents to the pads of the power grid either by means of package leads in wire-bond chips or through C4 bump arrays in flip chip technology. Although the resistance of package is quite small, the inductance of package leads is significant which causes a voltage drop at the pad locations due to the time varying current drawn by the devices on die. This voltage drop is referred to as the di/dt-drop. Therefore, the voltage seen at the devices is the supply voltage minus the IR-drop and di/dt-drop. Excessive voltage drops in the power grid reduce switching speeds and noise margins of circuits, and inject noise which might lead to functional failures. High average current densities lead to undesirable wearing out of metal wires due to electromigration (EM). Therefore, the challenge in the design of a power distribution network is in achieving excellent voltage regulation at the consumption points notwithstanding the wide fluctuations in power demand across the chip, and to build such a network using minimum area of the metal layers. These issues are prominent in high performance chips such as microprocessors, since large amounts of power have to be distributed through a hierarchy of many metal layers. A robust power distribution network is vital in meeting performance guarantees and ensuring reliable operation. Capacitance between power and ground distribution networks, referred to as decoupling capacitors or decaps, acts as local charge storage and is helpful in mitigating the voltage drop at supply points. Parasitic