Glitch Analysis and Reduction in Digital Circuits

International Journal of VLSI design & Communication Systems (VLSICS) Vol.7, No.4, August 2016
DOI : 10.5121/vlsic.2016.7405 47
GLITCH ANALYSIS AND REDUCTION IN
DIGITAL CIRCUITS
Ronak Shah
B.Tech Student, Electronics and Communication,
Faculty of Technology, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India
ABSTRACT
Hazard in digital circuits is unnecessary transitions due to gate propagation delay in that circuit. Hazards
occur due to uneven delay offered in the path of the various ongoing signals. One of the important reasons
for power dissipation in CMOS circuits is the switching activity .This include activities such as spurious
pulses, called glitches. Power optimization techniques that concentrate on the reduction of switching
power dissipation of a given circuit are called glitch reduction techniques. In this paper, we analyse
various Glitch reduction techniques such as Hazard filtering Technique, Balanced Path Technique,
Multiple Threshold Technique and Gate Freezing Technique. We also measure the parameters such as
noise and delay of the circuits on application of various techniques to check the reliability of different
circuits in various situations.
KEYWORDS
Glitch, Power dissipation, Gate freezing, balanced path delay, multiple threshold transistor, Hazard
filtering, Noise, Delay and switching activity
.
1. INTRODUCTION
Low Power Circuit Design has become very crucial in today’s era of modern portable consumer
gadgets. For CMOS combinational circuits, the reduction of dynamic power dissipation is very
important. A signal transition can be of two types: a functional transition and glitch. Before
reaching the steady state, a signal might go through several state changes which are called
glitches. As they dissipate 20-70% of total power dissipation, glitch is needed to be eliminated for
low power design.
PTotal=PStatic +Pdynamic (1)
PTotal=PSwitching+PShort-Circuit+ Pleakage (2)
Total Power dissipation consists of mainly dynamic power dissipation and static power
dissipation, further these are divided into switching power dissipation, leakage power dissipation,
short circuit power dissipation. Dynamic power dissipation is a major source of leakage power,
which is directly proportional to the number of signal transitions(1-0 and 0-1) in a digital circuit.
Switching power dissipation (Pswitching) is directly proportional to switching activity(a),load
capacitance(Cload), Voltage supply (Vdd) and clock frequency( fclk) as shown in equation(3).

48
Pswitching= a .Cload.Vdd
2
.fclk (3)
In this paper we have chosen the best available techniques to reduce the glitch power. We have
selected highly glitchfull circuits in our analysis and tried to reduce glitch power, delay and noise
using these techniques. Using Tanner tool simulation, we have also put up the statistics to make
the analysis simpler to understand.
2. TECHNIQUES FOR GLITCH REDUCTION
2.1 Gate Freezing
This method is useful for minimization of glitches. In this method, glitchfull and high power
dissipating circuits are selected and replaced by a modified library cell called ‘F-gate’ with a
control signal(CS) as shown in Fig.1 where Vdd is supply voltage ,I is input ,O is output CS is
control signal to n-type library cell and Gnd is ground. This gate is controlled in order to freeze
the cell’s output for reducing the amount of glitch from the circuit. Basic CMOS gate and Gate
freezed CMOS layout is shown in Figure1.The control signal(CS) drives the gate input of this n-
type cell .This method transforms some of the gates that are more glitchfull into modified devices
that are able to filter out unnecessary output transitions when a control signal(CS) is activated.
Figure 1 CMOS logic and CMOS logic with library cell

49
2.2 Balanced Path Technique
Balanced path delay technique is used for resolving differing path delays. To make path delays
equal, buffer insertion is done on the faster paths. Balanced path delay will avoid glitches in the
output. This technique is not considered efficient in terms of power consumption due to addition
of buffers. Hence the more innovative method is hazard filtering discussed next.
Figure 2 Original Circuit with glitch output
Figure 3 After applying balanced path delay technique
2.3 Hazard Filtering Technique
Hazard in digital circuits is unnecessary transitions as in case of glitch due to gate propagation
delay in that circuit.
Figure 4 After applying hazard filtering technique
Hazards occur due to uneven delay offered in the path of the various ongoing signals. So apart
from balanced path delay technique and using buffers to balance the delays in path ,we use the
hazard filtering technique in which we increase the delay of receiving hardware to such an extent
so that spurious transitions are eliminated and hence the glitch is eliminated. This is shown in the
figure and also verified using simulation.
2.4 Multiple Threshold Technique
This is a technique to reduce power dissipation and reducing glitch in digital circuits. As delay of
each gate is a function of threshold voltage(Vth), gates that are in non critical paths were selected

50
and their threshold voltages were rised manually, then the propagation delays along different
paths can be balanced so that unnecessary transition will be minimized. Therefore, it is a new
efficient technique for minimizing glitch in digital circuits that lead to low power dissipation.
Figure 5 Multiple Threshold Implementation
3. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
We present the analysis of various parameters after applying various techniques on original
glitchfull circuits.
Analysis of Circuit1( a’+b)

51
Analysis of Circuit 2 (AB’+BC)
Analysis of Circuit3 ((a’b)’c)’
3.1 Average Power Analysis:
Results show that Hazard Filtering Technique and Multiple Threshold Technique are better than
other techniques where it is reduced upto 54.58% and 85.13% respectively. Also in multiple
threshold technique the output voltage is reduced as compared to maximum voltage. So in this
situation, we may prefer Hazard Filtering Technique to fulfill this criterion. The power
consumption is highest for balanced path technique as expected.

52
Figure 6 Circuit wise Average power consumption in watts
3.2 Max. Power Analysis
Similar to Average Power Analysis, we see that Maximum Power dissipation follows the same
trend except for ckt2 Hazard filtering technique. Otherwise, Multiple threshold Technique and
Hazard Filtering Techniques are advisable. The power consumption in balanced path technique as
expected is higher.
Figure 7 Circuit wise Maximum power consumption in watts

53
3.3 Delay Analysis
All techniques perform in similar manner for delay analysis of various circuits with a smaller lead
to Gate Freezing upto 67.72% and Multiple Threshold Technique upto 32.18%. Hence these
techniques may be used with proper analysis for reducing delay of the circuit.
Figure 8 Circuit wise delay analysis in sec
3.4 Noise Analysis
As seen from the chart, balanced path technique is the best when analyzed for least noise in the
output waveform upto 66.48%. The second best technique is the hazard filtering technique which
also offers lesser noise in the output.
Figure 9 Circuit wise noise analysis (in Sq V/Hz)

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4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we try to reduce the glitch power in the circuits and analyze the various available
techniques such as gate freezing, hazard filtering, balanced path delay and Multiple threshold
technique for noise, delay and power using tanner tool. We ascertain the various techniques
according to required specification in terms of these parameters. We show that Hazard Filtering
Technique and Multiple Threshold Technique are better than other techniques to reduce power
consumption in the circuit upto 54.58% and 85.13% respectively. To reduce delay and speed up
the circuit, we can use Multiple Threshold Techniques where it is reduced upto 67.72%,Gate
freezing technique is the second best approach to speed up the circuit upto 32.18%.Noise is best
reduced in balanced path delay technique upto 66.48%. Hence we check and analyse the
adaptability of various techniques for glitch reduction in various situations for its better
application in real life problems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by National Institute of Science and Technology under summer
undergraduate research fellowship.
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