Ultra-deep Submicron Research Articles

Coupling-Aware High-Level Interconnect Synthesis

Ultra-deep submicron technology and system-on-chip have resulted in a considerable portion of power dissipated on buses, in which the major sources of the power dissipation are: 1) the self transition activities on the signal lines and 2) the coupled transition activities of the lines. However, there has been no easy way of optimizing 1 and 2 simultaneously at an early stage of the synthesis process. In this paper, we propose a new (on-chip) bus synthesis algorithm to minimize the total sum of 1 and 2 in the microarchitecture synthesis. Specifically, unlike the previous approaches in which 1 and 2 are minimized sequentially without any interaction between them, or only one of them is minimized, we, given a scheduled dataflow graph to be synthesized, minimize 1 and 2 simultaneously by formulating and solving the two important issues in an integrated fashion: binding data transfers to buses and determining a (physical) order of signal lines in each bus, both of which are the most critical factors that affect the results of 1 and 2. Experimental results on a number of benchmark problems show that the proposed integrated low-power bus synthesis algorithm reduces power consumption by 24.8%, 40.3%, and 18.1% on average over those in (Chang and Pedram 1995, for minimizing 1 only), (Shin and Sakurai 2001, for 2 only) and (Shin and Sakurai 2001 and Chang and Pegram 1995, for 1 and then 2), respectively.

Simulation and comparison of MOS inversion layer quantum mechanics effects in SiGe PMOSFET and Si PMOSFET

By employing the semiconductor device 2D simulator Medici, the inversion layer quantum mechanics effects (QME) in the strained SiGe-channel PMOSFET are studied. The influences of the inversion layer QME on the channel hole sheet density, the surface potential, the electric field and the threshold voltage in strained SiGe PMOS and Si PMOS are simulated and compared. It is theoretically predicted and validated by the numeric simulation results that QME lead to much difference in device performance between SiGe PMOS and Si PMOS. This study shows that SiGe PMOS suffers less disadvantageous influence when compared with Si PMOS, in ultra-deep submicron dimension, where QME are becoming increasingly more important.

Interconnect noise analysis and optimization in deep submicron technology

The migration to using ultra deep submicron (UDSM) process, 0.25 /spl mu/m or below, necessitates new design methodologies and EDA tools to address the new design challenges. One of the main challenges is noise. All different types of deep submicron such as cross talk, leakage, supply noise and process variations are obstacles in the way of achieving the desired level of noise immunity without giving up the improvement achieved in performance and energy efficiency. This article describes research directions and various levels of design abstraction to handle the interconnect challenges. These directions include approaches to adopt new analytical methods for interconnects, physical design levels and finally ways to face these challenges early in a higher level of the design process.

Coupling delay optimization by temporal decorrelation using dual threshold voltage technique

Coupling effect due to line-to-line capacitance is of serious concern in timing analysis of circuits in ultra deep submicrometer CMOS technology. Often coupling delay is heavily dependent on temporal correlation of signal switching in relevant wires. Temporal decorrelation by shifting timing window can alleviate performance degradation induced by tight coupling. This paper presents an algorithm for minimizing circuit delay through timing window modulation in dual V/sub t/ technology. Experimental results on the ISCAS85 benchmark circuits indicate that the critical delay will be reduced significantly when low V/sub t/ is applied properly.

What are the limiting parameters of deep-submicron MOSFETs for high frequency applications?

Parameters limiting the improvement of high frequency characteristics for deep submicron MOSFETs with the downscaling process of the channel gate length are analyzed experimentally and analytically. It is demonstrated that for MOSFETs with optimized source, drain and gate access, the degradation of the maximum oscillation frequency is mainly related to the increase of the parasitic feedback gate-to-drain capacitance and output conductance with the physical channel length reduction. Optimization of these internal parameters is needed to further improve the high frequency performance of ultra deep submicron MOSFETs.

Noise-aware interconnect power optimization in domino logic synthesis

Realization of high-performance domino logic depends strongly on energy-efficient and noise-tolerant interconnect design in ultradeep submicrometer processes. We characterize the cycle-averaged power model for interconnects accounting for switching statistics and dynamic behaviors. For the sake of signal integrity, cross-coupling effects are also characterized, which reflect logical correlation between adjacent wires. Based on the new models for interconnect power and capacitive crosstalk, we optimize the coupling power consumed by interconnects with crosstalk constraints. Experimental results show that optimized designs save the power consumption about 14% on average.

Noise constrained transistor sizing and power optimization for dual V/sub t/ domino logic

Dynamic logic is susceptible to noise, especially in the ultra-deep submicrometer dual threshold voltage technology. When the dual threshold voltage is applied to the domino logic, noise immunity must be carefully considered since the significant subthreshold current of the low threshold voltage transistor makes the dynamic node much more susceptible to noise. In the first part of this paper, we introduce a new keeper transistor sizing method to determine the optimal keeper transistor size in terms of speed, power, and noise immunity. With the use of data obtained by presimulation, it is unnecessary to simulate all the design corners corresponding to the feasible NMOS evaluation transistor size ranges to find the optimal keeper transistor size. HSPICE simulation results show that the proposed keeper transistor sizing method can be broadly applied to all the domino logic gates. In the second part of this paper, we propose a new dual threshold voltage domino logic synthesis with the keeper transistor sizing to minimize the power consumption while meeting delay and noise constraints. With the optimal keeper transistor size determined by the proposed keeper transistor sizing method, the dual threshold voltage assignment to domino logic can be simplified to the discrete threshold voltage selection. Experimental results for ISCAS85 benchmark circuits show significant savings on leakage power and active power.

Power Supply Design Parameters for Switching-Noise Control in Deep-Submicron Circuits Design Flows

In high performance integrated circuits phenomena like crosstalk, i>IR drops, electromigration and ground bounce are assuming increasing proportions because of the growing complexity in ultra deep submicron designs: their effects are assuming increasing impact compromising circuits functionality and not only their performances. This paper suggests a methodology to evaluate and to prevent power supply noise generation in more and more increasing dimensions circuit blocks. The power supply busses modeling is addressed to find out actual parameters to face early in the design phase noise phenomena related to power distribution. In particular using the equations reported in this paper the designer has the possibility to control the global power bus noise generation depending on the design strategy used, on the library characteristics and on the given performance constraints. The appropriateness of the developed methodology seems to be helpful if applied during the circuit design flow in conjunction with a project tool having as a target noise reduction besides delay and power optimization.

A novel multi-level interconnect scheme with air as low K inter-metal dielectric for ultradeep submicron application

In this letter, a novel multi-level interconnect scheme with air as the low K inter-metal dielectric for ultra large scale integrated circuit (ULSI) application in ultradeep submicron (UDSM) range is proposed. The detailed process integration with copper dual damascene processing is described. The feasibility of the scheme is examined by trimethylaluminum Raphael simulation for the effective dielectric constant and the cutoff frequency in a standard divide by three counter. The simulation results are also compared with these reported air gap formation technologies. The results show the developed multi-level interconnect system is suitable for UDSM application.