Critical area (computing)
In integrated circuit design, a critical area is a section of a circuit design wherein a particle of a particular size can cause a failure. It measures the sensitivity of the circuit to a reduction in yield.

The critical area  on a single layer integrated circuit design is given by:
 
where  is the area in which a defect of radius  will cause a failure, and  is the density function of said defect.

References

Integrated circuits