1. CMOS VLSI Design
CORPORATE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY , BHOPAL
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATIONS
VLSI CIRCUIT ELEMENTS
- Prof. Rakesh K. Jha
3. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 3
Introduction
Chips are mostly made of wires called interconnect
– In stick diagram, wires set size
– Transistors are little things under the wires
– Many layers of wires
Wires are as important as transistors
– Speed
– Power
– Noise
Alternating layers run orthogonally
4. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 4
Wire Geometry
Pitch = w + s
Aspect ratio: AR = t/w
– Old processes had AR << 1
– Modern processes have AR 2
• Pack in many skinny wires
5. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 5
Layer Stack
AMI 0.6 m process has 3 metal layers
Modern processes use 6-10+ metal layers
Example:
Intel 180 nm process
M1: thin, narrow (< 3)
– High density cells
M2-M4: thicker
– For longer wires
M5-M6: thickest
– For VDD, GND, clk
Layer T (nm) W (nm) S (nm) AR
6 1720 860 860 2.0
1000
5 1600 800 800 2.0
1000
4 1080 540 540 2.0
700
3 700 320 320 2.2
700
2 700 320 320 2.2
700
1 480 250 250 1.9
800
Substrate
8. CMOS VLSI Design
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Wire Resistance
= resistivity (*m)
R = sheet resistance (/)
is a dimensionless unit(!)
Count number of squares
– R = R * (# of squares) l
w
t
1RectangularBlock
R = R (L/W)
4RectangularBlocks
R =R (2L/2W)
= R (L/W)
t
l
w w
l
l l
R R
t w w
9. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 9
Choice of Metals
Until 180 nm generation, most wires were aluminum
Modern processes often use copper
– Cu atoms diffuse into silicon and damage FETs
– Must be surrounded by a diffusion barrier
Metal Bulk resistivity (*cm)
Silver (Ag) 1.6
Copper (Cu) 1.7
Gold (Au) 2.2
Aluminum (Al) 2.8
Tungsten (W) 5.3
Molybdenum (Mo) 5.3
11. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 11
Contacts Resistance
Contacts and vias also have 2-20
Use many contacts for lower R
– Many small contacts for current crowding around
periphery
12. CMOS VLSI Design
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Wire Capacitance
Wire has capacitance per unit length
– To neighbors
– To layers above and below
Ctotal = Ctop + Cbot + 2Cadj
layer n+1
layer n
layer n-1
Cadj
Ctop
Cbot
w
s
t
h1
h2
13. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 13
Capacitance Trends
Parallel plate equation: C = A/d
– Wires are not parallel plates, but obey trends
– Increasing area (W, t) increases capacitance
– Increasing distance (s, h) decreases capacitance
Dielectric constant
– = k0
0 = 8.85 x 10-14
F/cm
k = 3.9 for SiO2
Processes are starting to use low-k dielectrics
– k 3 (or less) as dielectrics use air pockets
14. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 14
M2 Capacitance Data
Typical wires have ~ 0.2 fF/m
– Compare to 2 fF/m for gate capacitance
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
0 500 1000 1500 2000
C
total
(aF/m)
w (nm)
Isolated
M1, M3 planes
s = 320
s = 480
s = 640
s=
8
s = 320
s = 480
s = 640
s=
8
15. CMOS VLSI Design
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Diffusion & Polysilicon
Diffusion capacitance is very high (about 2 fF/m)
– Comparable to gate capacitance
– Diffusion also has high resistance
– Avoid using diffusion runners for wires!
Polysilicon has lower C but high R
– Use for transistor gates
– Occasionally for very short wires between gates
16. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 16
Lumped Element Models
Wires are a distributed system
– Approximate with lumped element models
3-segment -model is accurate to 3% in simulation
L-model needs 100 segments for same accuracy!
Use single segment -model for Elmore delay
C
R
C/N
R/N
C/N
R/N
C/N
R/N
C/N
R/N
R
C
L-model
R
C/2 C/2
R/2 R/2
C
N segments
-model T-model
17. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 17
Example
Metal2 wire in 180 nm process
– 5 mm long
– 0.32 m wide
Construct a 3-segment -model
– R =
– Cpermicron =
18. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 18
Example
Metal2 wire in 180 nm process
– 5 mm long
– 0.32 m wide
Construct a 3-segment -model
– R = 0.05 / => R = 781
– Cpermicron = 0.2 fF/m => C = 1 pF
260
167 fF 167 fF
260
167 fF 167 fF
260
167 fF 167 fF
19. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 19
Wire RC Delay
Estimate the delay of a 10x inverter driving a 2x
inverter at the end of the 5mm wire from the
previous example.
– R = 2.5 k*m for gates
– Unit inverter: 0.36 m nMOS, 0.72 m pMOS
– tpd =
20. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 20
Wire RC Delay
Estimate the delay of a 10x inverter driving a 2x
inverter at the end of the 5mm wire from the
previous example.
– R = 2.5 k*m for gates
– Unit inverter: 0.36 m nMOS, 0.72 m pMOS
– tpd = 1.1 ns
781
500 fF 500 fF
Driver Wire
4 fF
Load
690
21. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 21
Crosstalk
A capacitor does not like to change its voltage
instantaneously.
A wire has high capacitance to its neighbor.
– When the neighbor switches from 1-> 0 or 0->1,
the wire tends to switch too.
– Called capacitive coupling or crosstalk.
Crosstalk effects
– Noise on nonswitching wires
– Increased delay on switching wires
22. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 22
Crosstalk Delay
Assume layers above and below on average are quiet
– Second terminal of capacitor can be ignored
– Model as Cgnd = Ctop + Cbot
Effective Cadj depends on behavior of neighbors
– Miller effect
A B
Cadj
Cgnd Cgnd
B V Ceff(A) MCF
Constant
Switching with A
Switching opposite A
23. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 23
Crosstalk Delay
Assume layers above and below on average are quiet
– Second terminal of capacitor can be ignored
– Model as Cgnd = Ctop + Cbot
Effective Cadj depends on behavior of neighbors
– Miller effect
A B
Cadj
Cgnd Cgnd
B V Ceff(A) MCF
Constant VDD Cgnd + Cadj 1
Switching with A 0 Cgnd 0
Switching opposite A 2VDD Cgnd + 2 Cadj 2
24. CMOS VLSI Design
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Crosstalk Noise
Crosstalk causes noise on nonswitching wires
If victim is floating:
– model as capacitive voltage divider
Cadj
Cgnd-v
Aggressor
Victim
Vaggressor
Vvictim
adj
victim aggressor
gnd v adj
C
V V
C C
25. CMOS VLSI Design
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Driven Victims
Usually victim is driven by a gate that fights noise
– Noise depends on relative resistances
– Victim driver is in linear region, agg. in saturation
– If sizes are same, Raggressor = 2-4 x Rvictim
1
1
adj
victim aggressor
gnd v adj
C
V V
C C k
aggressor gnd a adj
aggressor
victim victim gnd v adj
R C C
k
R C C
Cadj
Cgnd-v
Aggressor
Victim
Vaggressor
Vvictim
Raggressor
Rvictim
Cgnd-a
27. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 27
Noise Implications
So what if we have noise?
If the noise is less than the noise margin, nothing
happens
Static CMOS logic will eventually settle to correct
output even if disturbed by large noise spikes
– But glitches cause extra delay
– Also cause extra power from false transitions
Dynamic logic never recovers from glitches
Memories and other sensitive circuits also can
produce the wrong answer
28. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 28
Wire Engineering
Goal: achieve delay, area, power goals with
acceptable noise
Degrees of freedom:
32. CMOS VLSI Design
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Repeaters
R and C are proportional to l
RC delay is proportional to l2
– Unacceptably great for long wires
33. CMOS VLSI Design
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Repeaters
R and C are proportional to l
RC delay is proportional to l2
– Unacceptably great for long wires
Break long wires into N shorter segments
– Drive each one with an inverter or buffer
Wire Length: l
Driver Receiver
l/N
Driver
Segment
Repeater
l/N
Repeater
l/N
Receiver
Repeater
NSegments
34. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 34
Repeater Design
How many repeaters should we use?
How large should each one be?
Equivalent Circuit
– Wire length l/N
• Wire Capaitance Cw*l/N, Resistance Rw*l/N
– Inverter width W (nMOS = W, pMOS = 2W)
• Gate Capacitance C’*W, Resistance R/W
35. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 35
Repeater Design
How many repeaters should we use?
How large should each one be?
Equivalent Circuit
– Wire length l
• Wire Capacitance Cw*l, Resistance Rw*l
– Inverter width W (nMOS = W, pMOS = 2W)
• Gate Capacitance C’*W, Resistance R/W
R/W
C'W
Cw
l/2N Cw
l/2N
Rw
lN
36. CMOS VLSI Design
Interconnect Slide 36
Repeater Results
Write equation for Elmore Delay
– Differentiate with respect to W and N
– Set equal to 0, solve
2
w w
l RC
N R C
2 2
pd
w w
t
RC R C
l
w
w
RC
W
R C
~60-80 ps/mm
in 180 nm process