An all-digital, highly scalable architecture for measurement of spatial variation in digital circuits

Abstract

Increased variation in CMOS processes due to scaling results in greater reliance on accurate variation models in developing circuit methods to mitigate variation. This paper investigates specific variation parameters and their measurement approach for use in such models, leading to critical considerations in aggressive voltage scaling systems. We describe a test-chip in 90 nm CMOS containing all-digital measurement circuits capable of extracting accurate variation data. Specifically, we use replicated 64-bit Kogge-Stone adders, ring-oscillators (ROs) of varying gate type and stage length and an all-digital, sub-picosecond resolution delay measurement circuit to provide spatial variation data for digital circuits. Measurement data from the test-chips indicate that 1) relative variation is significantly larger in low-voltage domains, 2) within-die variation is spatially uncorrelated, and 3) die-to-die (or global) variation is strongly correlated, but degrades toward uncorrelated as the power-supply voltage is lowered.