Process‐induced variability modeling of subthreshold leakage power considering device stacking

Abstract

SummaryThe dominance of leakage currents in circuit design has been impelled by steady downscaling of MOSFET into nanometer regime, and has become a significant component of total IC power dissipation. The issue is further aggravated with the inability to gauge the tolerance of process parameters around their nominal value. Consequently, the drive to improve the static power prediction has enticed accurate and reliable modeling of leakage current, specifically for ultralow power applications. In contrast to gate‐ and band‐to‐band‐tunneling leakages, subthreshold leakage exhibits high susceptibility to process variations and hence has been considered for variability modeling. Fluctuations in the device electrical and geometry parameters result in a wider distribution of subthreshold leakage current. Hence, taking into account stacking effect, an analytical variability model to estimate subthreshold leakage power in subthreshold circuits, in the presence of threshold voltage variations is proposed. Further, the impact of threshold voltage variability on subthreshold leakage power is modeled in conjunction with simultaneous variations in gate length and width. The leakage power variability is characterized by model‐generated distributions obtained using Monte Carlo analysis and validated against SPICE simulations. The proposed model is about 700 computationally faster than SPICE simulations with mean error being less than 0.19%.