Functional Safety

Functional verification in digital and integrated circuit (IC) design is a foundational pillar for ensuring the dependable operation of electronic systems, particularly in safety-critical domains such as automotive, aerospace, medical devices, and industrial automation. As electronic systems become increasingly complex and more tightly integrated into mission-critical applications, the consequences of undetected faults or design flaws can be severe, potentially leading to system-level failures, harm to human life, or significant economic losses.

The goal of functional safety is to systematically identify, analyze, and mitigate risks associated with random hardware faults and systematic design errors. This requires a disciplined approach that encompasses detailed failure mode analysis, fault injection campaigns, robustness testing, and the implementation of dedicated safety mechanisms to detect and control faults during operation. Verification efforts are guided by stringent industry standards like ISO 26262 for automotive functional safety and DO-254 for airborne electronic hardware, ensuring designs meet regulatory compliance and certification requirements.

Furthermore, the process demands comprehensive traceability between safety goals, technical requirements, design implementations, and verification evidence. It involves creating and maintaining safety analysis artifacts such as FMEDA (Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis) reports, fault trees, and verification coverage metrics. By rigorously applying these methodologies, engineering teams significantly reduce the likelihood of latent defects, enhance system reliability, and build a defensible safety case that demonstrates compliance and due diligence across the entire development lifecycle.

Ultimately, functional safety verification not only protects human lives and high-value assets but also strengthens market confidence, accelerates certification timelines, and enables companies to bring innovative, safety-assured products to market with reduced risk.

Questa One Functional Safety

The Questa One Functional Safety Solution builds on over a decade of experience evaluating industry challenges and collaborating closely with key customers to address both current and emerging complexities. This comprehensive safety-aware technology suite is designed to empower engineering teams with the tools and methodologies needed to navigate the rigorous demands of safety-critical markets.

The Verification Academy Functional Safety Solution provides engineering managers and individual contributors education, methodology, and a detailed overview of the Questa One Functional Safety solution to help project teams manage the safety workflow. The Questa One Functional Safety Solution unifies the safety workflow by providing an AI-powered, fully integrated, end-to-end platform that harmonizes key domains throughout the IC development lifecycle. It’s integration with additional Siemens safety solutions unites safety activities across all development phases, reducing engineering overhead, enhancing schedule predictability, and ensuring that your product meets the highest standards of functional correctness and fail-safe assurance.

Safety-critical markets are each governed by rigorous standards that define the necessary processes, design methodologies, and verification requirements to ensure functional safety and regulatory compliance. These standards provide frameworks for hazard analysis, risk assessment, design assurance, and verification activities that help mitigate the risk of catastrophic failures. Below is a sampling of industries and their corresponding safety standard:

Automotive — ISO 26262

• Defines a risk-based framework for achieving functional safety in automotive electronics, with ASIL levels guiding design, verification, and validation.

Aerospace & Avionics — DO-254 / DO-178C

• Mandates structured development and verification processes for airborne hardware and software to ensure safe operation under all conditions.

Industrial Automation — IEC 61508

• Applies to industrial systems, assigning Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) and specifying lifecycle processes for risk reduction in electrical and electronic systems.

Medical Devices — IEC 62304 & ISO 14971

• Establishes processes for safe medical device software development and risk management across the product lifecycle.

Railway — EN 50129 / EN 50126 / EN 50128

• Governs the development and verification of safe railway control, signaling, and software systems to prevent operational hazards.

Emerging & Unstandardized Critical Applications

• There are industries which must also follow rigorous, aerospace-inspired methodologies for reliability and fault tolerance, even in the absence of a formal standard. Some project teams may choose to follow standard guidance. Likewise, sectors such as data centers and HPC adopt reliability engineering practices to minimize downtime and protect critical infrastructure, despite lacking mandated safety standards.

Conclusion

Functional safety verification is crucial in the design of digital and integrated circuits for safety-critical applications. It plays a vital role in mitigating risks, complying with safety standards, and ensuring the reliable operation of electronic systems. By adhering to best practices and established functional safety standards, designers and engineers can meet safety requirements and deliver products that inspire confidence in users across various industries, including automotive, industrial, aerospace, medical, and more. Functional safety verification is a key element in modern technology, underscoring the significance of safety in electronic systems and devices.