Datasheet electrical characteristics parameters confusion
See note 4, &quot;These parameters are guaranteed by design and not subject to production testing&quot; -- unlike the other parameters where a production test program makes a measurement and bins any devices that fail the min/max limits, a Guaranteed By Design parameter is accomplished as part of the logic timing simulation. I don't have any insight particular to Analog Devices, but generally in the industry, production wafers usually include a few test coupon sites that are used for process control. As long as the wafer meets the production design requirements (gate oxide capacitance, sheet resistance, etc.), then the logic timing is guaranteed to meet the specification.
What they're trying to show with this table is that for example the Data Hold time requires 15ns under all worst-case manufacturing variances, so that's what they claim as their &quot;min&quot; limit, but presumably an applications engineer tested a sample of real devices and found that on the ones they looked at in their lab, typically they only need 5ns; the typical/min numbers give you and idea of how much guardband there is.
If you design your system to run at a clock frequency of 1/(30ns+30ns) then it will definitely work, and if you design for a clock frequency of 1/(10ns+10ns) it will typically work.
For a high volume production line meant to serve for many years, ignore the typical values and stick with the guaranteed limits. But if you're only building a few units, and you want to trade off higher performance for reliability, the typical value gives you some guidance what you can expect.
Note that it might not always work, it might need more over temperature, and in the long term some batches of parts might come out with a different typical value. As long as those parts still meet the min/max specs they're technically not failed parts, the typical specs are not guaranteed. That's the hazard of designing with typical specs rather than worst-case sepcs.