Introduction to CMOS VLSI Design

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Outline
Introduction Wire Resistance Wire Capacitance Wire RC Delay Crosstalk Wire Engineering Repeaters

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 2

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

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 3

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
l

t h

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 4

Layer Stack
AMI 0.6 mm process has 3 metal layers Modern processes use 6-10+ metal layers Layer T (nm) W (nm) S (nm) AR Example: 6 1720 860 860 2.0 Intel 180 nm process 1000 M1: thin, narrow (< 3l) 5 1600 800 800 2.0 High density cells 1000 4 1080 540 540 2.0 M2-M4: thicker 700 3 700 320 320 2.2 For longer wires 700 2 700 320 320 2.2 700 M5-M6: thickest 1 480 250 250 1.9 800 For VDD, GND, clk
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Substrate

Slide 5

Wire Resistance
r = resistivity (W*m)

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 6

Wire Resistance
r = resistivity (W*m)

r l
t w

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 7

Wire Resistance
r = resistivity (W*m)

R = sheet resistance (W/) is a dimensionless unit(!) Count number of squares R = R * (# of squares)

l t 1 Rectangular Block R = R (L/W) W

l R R t w w

r l

l w

t 4 Rectangular Blocks R = R (2L/2W) W = R (L/W) W

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 8

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
Silver (Ag) Copper (Cu) Gold (Au)

Bulk resistivity (mW*cm)

1.6 1.7 2.2

Aluminum (Al)
Tungsten (W) Molybdenum (Mo)
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2.8
5.3 5.3
CMOS VLSI Design Slide 9

Sheet Resistance
Typical sheet resistances in 180 nm process
Layer
Diffusion (silicided) Diffusion (no silicide) Polysilicon (silicided)

Sheet Resistance (W/)

3-10 50-200 3-10

Polysilicon (no silicide)

Metal1 Metal2 Metal3

50-400
0.08 0.05 0.05

Metal4
Metal5 Metal6
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0.03
0.02 0.02
CMOS VLSI Design Slide 10

Contacts Resistance
Contacts and vias also have 2-20 W Use many contacts for lower R Many small contacts for current crowding around periphery

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 11

Wire Capacitance
Wire has capacitance per unit length To neighbors To layers above and below Ctotal = Ctop + Cbot + 2Cadj
s w layer n+1 h2 t h1 Cbot Cadj layer n-1 Ctop layer n

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 12

Capacitance Trends
Parallel plate equation: C = eA/d Wires are not parallel plates, but obey trends Increasing area (W, t) increases capacitance Increasing distance (s, h) decreases capacitance Dielectric constant e = ke0 e0 = 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
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M2 Capacitance Data
Typical wires have ~ 0.2 fF/mm Compare to 2 fF/mm for gate capacitance
400 350

300

M1, M3 planes
s = 320 s = 480 s = 640

250

Ctotal (aF/mm)

200

s= Isolated

150

s = 320 s = 480 s = 640

50

0 0 500 1000 1500 2000

w (nm)

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CMOS VLSI Design

100

s=

Slide 14

Diffusion & Polysilicon

Diffusion capacitance is very high (about 2 fF/mm) 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

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 15

Lumped Element Models

Wires are a distributed system Approximate with lumped element models
N segments R C R C L-model R/N C/N R C/2 C/2 R/N C/N R/N C/N R/2 R/2 C T-model R/N C/N

p-model

3-segment p-model is accurate to 3% in simulation L-model needs 100 segments for same accuracy! Use single segment p-model for Elmore delay
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Example
Metal2 wire in 180 nm process 5 mm long 0.32 mm wide Construct a 3-segment p-model R = Cpermicron =

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 17

Example
Metal2 wire in 180 nm process 5 mm long 0.32 mm wide Construct a 3-segment p-model R = 0.05 W/ => R = 781 W Cpermicron = 0.2 fF/mm => C = 1 pF
260 W 167 fF 167 fF
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260 W 167 fF 167 fF

CMOS VLSI Design

260 W 167 fF 167 fF

Slide 18

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 kW*mm for gates Unit inverter: 0.36 mm nMOS, 0.72 mm pMOS

tpd =
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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 kW*mm for gates Unit inverter: 0.36 mm nMOS, 0.72 mm pMOS
781 W 690 W Driver 500 fF 500 fF Wire 4 fF Load

tpd = 1.1 ns
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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 20

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

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 21

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 A B Miller effect C
Cgnd
adj

Cgnd

B Constant Switching with A Switching opposite A

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DV

Ceff(A)

MCF

CMOS VLSI Design

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 A B Miller effect C
Cgnd
adj

Cgnd

B Constant Switching with A Switching opposite A

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DV VDD 0

Ceff(A) Cgnd + Cadj Cgnd

MCF 1 0

2VDD Cgnd + 2 Cadj 2

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CMOS VLSI Design

Crosstalk Noise
Crosstalk causes noise on nonswitching wires If victim is floating: model as capacitive voltage divider

DVvictim

Cadj Cgnd v Cadj

Aggressor

DVaggressor

DVaggressor Victim

Cadj Cgnd-v DVvictim

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 24

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
DVvictim 1 DVaggressor Cgnd v Cadj 1 k Cadj
Raggressor DVaggressor Rvictim Cgnd-v Cgnd-a Cadj Victim DVvictim Aggressor

aggressor Raggressor C gnd a Cadj k victim Rvictim C gnd v Cadj

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Slide 25

Coupling Waveforms
Simulated coupling for Cadj = Cvictim
1.8

Aggressor

1.5

1.2

0.9

Victim (undriven): 50%

0.6

Victim (half size driver): 16% Victim (equal size driver): 8%

0.3

Victim (double size driver): 4%

0 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1800 2000

t(ps)

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 26

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
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Wire Engineering
Goal: achieve delay, area, power goals with acceptable noise Degrees of freedom:

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 28

Wire Engineering
Goal: achieve delay, area, power goals with acceptable noise Degrees of freedom: Width Spacing
2.0 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 500 1000 Pitch (nm) 1500 2000 0 500 1000 Pitch (nm) 1500 2000 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

Coupling:2Cadj / (2C adj+Cgnd)

1.8

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Delay (ns):RC/2

WireSpacing (nm) 320 480 640

CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 29

Wire Engineering
Goal: achieve delay, area, power goals with acceptable noise Degrees of freedom: Width Spacing Layer
2.0 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0

Coupling:2Cadj / (2C adj+Cgnd)

1.8

Delay (ns):RC/2

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

WireSpacing (nm) 320 480 640

0.1 0 0 500 1000 Pitch (nm) 1500 2000

500

1000 Pitch (nm)

1500

2000

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 30

Wire Engineering
Goal: achieve delay, area, power goals with acceptable noise Degrees of freedom: Width Spacing Layer Shielding
2.0 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0

Coupling:2Cadj / (2C adj+Cgnd)

1.8

Delay (ns):RC/2

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

WireSpacing (nm) 320 480 640

0.1 0

500

1000 Pitch (nm)

1500

2000

500

1000 Pitch (nm)

1500

2000

vdd a0

a1 gnd a2

a3 vdd

vdd a0 gnd a1 vdd a2 gnd

a0

b0

a1

b1

a2

b2

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 31

Repeaters
R and C are proportional to l RC delay is proportional to l2 Unacceptably great for long wires

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 32

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

N Segments Segment l/N Driver l/N Repeater Repeater Repeater l/N Receiver

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 33

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

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CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 34

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
RwlN R/W
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Cwl/2N Cwl/2N
CMOS VLSI Design

C'W
Slide 35

Repeater Results
Write equation for Elmore Delay Differentiate with respect to W and N Set equal to 0, solve

l N
t pd l
W
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2 RC RwCw

2 2
RCw RwC

RC RwCw

~60-80 ps/mm in 180 nm process

CMOS VLSI Design

Slide 36