Feature-scale Process Simulation and accurate capacitance extraction for the backend of a 100-nm aluminum/TEOS Process

One of the challenges that technology computer-aided design must meet currently is the analysis of the performance of groups of components, interconnects, and, generally speaking, large parts of the IC. This enables predictions that the simulation of single components cannot achieve. In this paper, we focus on the simulation of backend processes, interconnect capacitances, and time delays. The simulation flows start from the blank wafer surface and result in device information for the circuit designer usable from within SPICE. In order to join topography and backend simulations, deposition, etching, and chemical mechanical planarization processes in the various metal lines are used to build up the backend stack, starting from the flat wafer surface. Depending on metal combination, line-to-line space, and line width, thousands of simulations are required whose results are stored in a database. Finally, we present simulation results for the backend of a 100-nm process, where the influence of void formation between metal lines profoundly impacts the performance of the whole interconnect stack, consisting of aluminum metal lines, and titanium nitride local interconnects. Scanning electron microscope images of test structures are compared to topography simulations, and very good agreement is found. Moreover, charge-based capacitance measurements were carried out to validate the capacitance extraction, and it was found that the error is smaller than four percent. These simulations assist the consistent fabrication of voids, which is economically advantageous compared to low-/spl kappa/ materials, which suffer from integration problems.     

Optical Pipelined Multi‐bus Interconnection Network Intrinsic Topologies

Digital all‐optical parallel computing is an important research direction and spans conventional devices and convergent nano‐optics deployments. Optical bus‐based interconnects provide interesting aspects such as relative information communication speed‐up or slow‐down between optical signals. This aspect is harnessed in the newly proposed All‐Optical Linear Array with a Reconfigurable Pipelined Bus System (OLARPBS) model. However, the physical realization of such communication interconnects needs to be considered. This paper considers spatial layouts of processing elements along with the optical bus light paths that are necessary to realize the corresponding interconnection requirements. A metric in terms of the degree of required physical constraint is developed to characterize the variety of possible solutions. Simple algorithms that determine spatial layouts are given. It is shown that certain communication interconnection structures have associated intrinsic topologies.     

Crosstalk-based capacitance measurements: theory and applications

Geometry scaling increases the relative effect of coupling capacitances on performance, power, and noise so that they need to be carefully taken into account during process development, characterization, and monitoring. In the last decade, charge-based capacitance measurements (CBCMs) have been widely used to estimate on-chip wiring and coupling capacitances because of their accuracy and simplicity. We provide a thorough theoretical and experimental study of CBCMs applied to the selective extraction of cross-coupling capacitances. We take a historical perspective starting from the original CBCM approach proposed by Chen in 1996, and we present a new technique for crosstalk-based capacitance measurements (CTCMs). CTCMs improve the accuracy and usability of CBCMs while reducing the complexity of the test structures. We present the theory of CTCM, we provide experimental results demonstrating its improved accuracy, and we discuss its application to a wide range of process monitoring and testing tasks. Experimental results are used throughout the paper to support the discussion.     

An efficient structural approach to board interconnect diagnosis

In this paper we present an efficient structural approach for diagnosing board interconnects using boundary-scan. Whereas existing diagnosis approaches assume only wired-AND or wired-OR bridging fault model, we consider a more complex bridging short fault model in a CMOS circuit environment. The diagnostic test set is generated on the basis of graph theoretic technique and the adjacency fault model is adopted. By using the structural information of the wiring layout, the test length can be reduced. Both one-step and two-step diagnosis algorithms are given. They guarantee the complete diagnosis of multiple interconnect faults with no aliasing or confounding. The algorithms have been evaluated by simulation on several benchmark layouts and randomly generated layouts. Simulation results show that more than 50% reduction in the number of tests can be achieved for two-step diagnosis when the fault rate is very small, such as in a matured product line. This can significantly save the diagnosis cost for boundary-scan testing.     

A dictionary-based en/decoding scheme for low-power data buses

As bus lengths on multihundred-million transistor systems-on-a-chip (SoC) grow, and as interwire capacitances of sub-0.10 /spl mu/m technologies advance, the resulting high-switching capacitances of buses (and interconnects in general) have a nonnegligible impact on the power consumption of a whole SoC. This trend has been recognized and recently addressed by various research groups. We address this problem by introducing our bus encoding technique, adaptive dictionary-encoding scheme "ADES" that minimizes the power consumption of data buses through a dictionary-based encoding technique. Based on exploration of data properties on buses, our technique saves on average more than 25% of bus energy compared to the nonencoded cases using a large set of real-world applications for both address and data buses. Furthermore, we compare our technique to the best-known data bus encoding techniques to date and we find that it exceeds all of them in terms of energy savings for the same set of applications.     

Modeling and Analysis of On-Chip Single and H-tree Distributed RLC Interconnects

This paper presents novel methods for modeling and analysis of on-chip Single and H-tree distributed resistance inductance capacitance interconnects. The matrix pade-type approximation and scaling and squaring methods are employed for the numerical estimation of delay in single interconnect, and H-tree interconnects. The proposed models, which are based on these methods, provide rational function approximation for obtaining a passive interconnect model. Multiple single input single output model approximated transfer functions are developed for H-tree interconnects structure. With the equivalent reduced order lossy interconnect transfer functions, finite ramp responses are obtained, and line delay is estimated for various line lengths, input ramp rise times, source resistances, parasitic capacitances and load capacitances. In order to demonstrate the accuracy of proposed models, the estimated 50 % delay values are compared with the standard HSPICE W-element model and are found to be in good agreement. The proposed models worst case 50 % delay errors of single interconnect are 0.27 and 0.24 % respectively, while the worst case 50 % delay errors of H-tree structure are 5.73 and 3.94 % respectively.     

An efficient solver for the three-dimensional capacitance of theinterconnects in high speed digital circuit by the multiresolutionmethod of moments

The computation of the equivalent capacitances for three-dimensional (3-D) interconnects features large memory usage and long computing time. In this paper, a matrix sparsification approach based on multiresolution representation is applied with the method of moments (MoM) to calculate 3-D capacitances of interconnects in a layered media. Instead of direct expansion of the charge distribution by the orthogonal wavelet basis functions, the large full matrix resulting from discretization of the integral equations is taken as a discrete image and sparsified by two-dimensional (2-D) multiresolution representations. The inverse of the obtained sparse matrix is efficiently implemented by Schultz's iterative approach. Several numerical examples are given and the results obtained show that the proposed method significantly sparsifies the matrix equation and the capacitance parameters computed by the matrix equation with high sparsity agree well with the results of other reports and those computed by an established capacitance extractor FASTCAP     

A statistical approach to derive an electrical port model of capacitively coupled interconnects

This paper considers the derivation of an electrical model at the input/output ports of a generic system of nonparallel interconnects that can be employed to simulate cross talk and delay effects through a conventional SPICE-like simulator. Only capacitive coupling effects are considered. The equivalent model of the interconnects system is determined through an iterative procedure based on the contemporary adoption of the floating random walk method that estimates the grounding and coupling capacitances per unit length and the Picard-Carson procedure that determines the entries of the transmission-matrix (T-matrix) representation at the electrical ports. It is shown that the entries of the T matrix can be efficiently computed through Monte Carlo integration.     

Fast and accurate quasi-three-dimensional capacitance determinationof multilayer VLSI interconnects

A new fast and accurate capacitance determination methodology for intricate multilayer VLSI interconnects is presented. Since a multilayer interconnect structure is too complicated to be directly tractable, it is simplified by investigating charge distributions within the system. The quasi-three-dimensional (3-D) capacitances of the structure are then determined by combining a set of solid-ground-based two-dimensional (2-D) capacitances and shielding effects that can be independently calculated from the simplified structure. The shielding effects due to the neighboring lines of a line can be analytically determined from the given layout dimensions. The solid-ground-based 2-D capacitances can also be quickly computed from the simplified structure. Thus, the proposed capacitance determination methodology is much more cost-efficient than conventional 3-D-based methods. It is shown that the calculated quasi-3-D capacitances have excellent agreement with 3-D field-solver-based results within 5% error     

A generalized algorithm for the capacitance extraction of 3D VLSIinterconnects

In this paper, a generalized algorithm based upon the nonoverlapping domain decomposition method (NDDM) is presented for the capacitance extraction of three-dimensional (3-D) VLSI interconnects. The subdomains with conductors are analyzed by the finite-difference method, while the subdomains with pure dielectric layers are analyzed with the eigenmode expansion technique. The central processing unit time and memory size used by the NDDM are unrelated to the thickness of pure dielectric layers. NDDM's computing time grows as O(n) if the number of domain iterations is bounded. Also, benchmarks show that it is approximately 15 times less than those used by Ansoft's Maxwell SpiceLink. In addition, only a two-dimensional mesh is needed to analyze 3-D structures. This greatly reduces the algorithm complexity and makes it easy and straightforward to interface with layout automation software     

CMOS驱动电路中信号延迟的精确计算

本文提出了树形网络ＣＭＯＳ驱动电路中信号延迟相对精确的计算表达式，它考虑了不同延迟定义下ＣＭＯＳ驱动电路等老头儿 导通电阻及负功电容的影响，可用于ＶＬＳＩ互连延迟的计算及时间驱动布图系统信号延迟计算中。     

Monolayer metallic nanotube interconnects: promising candidates for short local interconnects

Mono- or bi-layer metallic single-wall carbon nanotube interconnects have lateral capacitances more than four times smaller than those of copper interconnects. The resistance and time-of-flight of these monolayer nanotubes would be larger than that of copper interconnects. For short lengths, however, driver resistance is quite dominant, and latency is determined by interconnect capacitance. Monolayer nanotube interconnects are therefore promising candidates for local interconnects. The average capacitance per unit length of these nanotube interconnects can be 50% smaller than that of copper interconnects and that leads to significant saving in power dissipation.     

Methodology for characterization of high-speed multi-conductor metal interconnections and evaluation of measurement errors

Analysis and design of interconnects in high speed integrated circuits and systems involves models in the form of multiconductor transmission lines. The fundamental parameters of those models are matrices of capacitance, (C), inductance, (L), resistance, (R), and conductance (G). We present a methodology for measurement of entries in capacitance matrix. The entries of capacitance matrices can be calculated using numerical solvers of electrostatic fields established under the assumption of suitable biasing of interconnect structures. Numerical calculations of complete field equations are very complex and expensive in terms of computer time, therefore several approximations are made in constructing interconnect dedicated software packages available on the market. Because of these approximations it is necessary to validate the calculations via measurements. Calculation of the off-diagonal entries of capacitance matrix from measurements of "two-terminal" capacitances is strongly corrupted by the measuring errors. The method involves direct capacitance measurement in multi-conductor structures and provides analysis of accuracy.     

Low-Loss Patterned Ground Shield Interconnect Transmission Lines in Advanced IC Processes

In this paper, we provide an extensive experimental and theoretical study of the benefits of patterned ground shield interconnect transmission lines over more conventional layouts in advanced integrated-circuit processes. As part of this experimental work, we present the first comparative study taken on truly differential transmission line test structures. Our experimental results obtained on transmission lines with patterned ground shields are compared against a predictive compact equivalent-circuit model. This model employs exact closed-form expressions for the inductances, and describes key performance figures such as characteristic impedance and attenuation loss with excellent accuracy     

Moment computation of lumped and distributed coupled RC trees withapplication to delay and crosstalk estimation

In today's deep submicrometer technology the coupling capacitances among individual on-chip RC trees have an essential effect on the signal delay and crosstalk, and the interconnects should be modeled as coupled RC trees. In this paper we provide simple exact explicit formulas for the Elmore delay and higher order voltage moments and a linear order recursive algorithm for the voltage moment computation for lumped and distributed coupled RC trees. By using the formulas and algorithms, the moment-matching method can be efficiently implemented to deal with delay and crosstalk estimation, model order reduction, and optimal design of interconnects. As an application of the algorithm, we provide a new efficient and accurate model for crosstalk estimation in coupled RC trees. Simulation results show it works better than existing methods     

DOE-Based Extraction of CMP, Active and Via Fill Impact on Capacitances

Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), active and via fills have become indispensable aspects of semiconductor manufacturing. CMP fills are used to reduce metal thickness variations due to chemical-mechanical polishing. Via fills are used to improve neighboring via printability and reliability of low-k and ultra low-k dielectrics. Active region fills are used for STI CMP uniformity and stress optimization. Although modern parasitic extraction tools accurately handle grounded fills and regular interconnects, such tools use only rough approximations to assess the capacitance impact of floating fills, such as assuming that floating fills are grounded or that each fill is merged with neighboring ones. To reduce such inaccuracies, we provide a design of experiments (DOE) which complements what is possible with existing extraction tools. Through the proposed DOE set, a design or mask house can generate normalized fill tables to correct for the inaccuracies of existing extraction tools when floating fills are present. Golden interconnect capacitance values can be updated using these normalized fill tables. Our proposed DOE enables extensive analyses of fill impacts on coupling capacitances. We show through 3-D field solver simulations that the assumptions used in extractors result in significant inaccuracies. We present analyses of fill impacts for an example technology and also provide analyses using the normalized fill tables to be used in the extraction flow for three different standard fill algorithms. We also extend our analyses and methodology to via fills and active region fills, which have more recently been introduced into semiconductor design-manufacturing methodologies and for which sufficient understanding is still lacking.     

互连线和CMOS模型对性能影响的分析

在集成电路中,全局互连线的设计是关键.分析了互连线RC和RLC模型的不同特性;针对互连线与CMOS器件级联的电路进行分析.分析了集成电路中互连线和CMOS的模型对性能的影响,并给出了基于HSPICE软件的仿真结果.仿真结果表明,不同互连线和CMOS模型对系统传输特性有一定影响.     

The evolution of multi-level air gap integration towards 32 nm node interconnects

Advanced copper interconnects need porous low-k materials to obtain low interline capacitances. A number of porous low-k integration issues have however delayed the introduction of these fragile dielectrics. Replacing the porous low-k dielectric by air is a viable alternative for future technology nodes. Air gaps are not only less prone to integration issues such as plasma damage, but they also enable extremely low capacitances since the permittivity of air is close to 1. In this paper, the evolution of the main air gap integration techniques, from micron-sized aluminum interconnect to copper interconnect for the 32 nm node are discussed in terms of integration complexity, reliability and manufacturability.     

A Timing-Dependent Power Estimation Framework Considering Coupling

In this paper, a timing-dependent dynamic power estimation framework that considers the impact of coupling in combinational circuits is proposed. Relative switching activities and delays of coupled interconnects significantly affect dynamic power dissipation in parasitic coupling capacitances (coupling power). To enable capturing the switching and timing dependence, detailed switching distributions and timing information are essential in accurate estimation of dynamic power consumption. An approach to efficiently represent and propagate switching and timing distributions through circuits is developed. Based on propagated switching and timing distributions, power consumption in coupling capacitances is accurately calculated. Experimental results using ISCAS'85 benchmarks demonstrate that ignoring timing dependence of coupling power consumption can cause up to 25% error in dynamic power estimation (corresponding to 59% error in coupling power estimation).      

基于各种快速Spice仿真器的Post-Layout寄生效应验证

现在的深亚微米工艺使用复杂的多层金属结构与先进电介质材料,随着工艺的进步,集成电路的器件尺寸越来越小,金属互连线做得越来越细,金属互连产生的寄生效应对电路性能的影响也越来越明显,各种各样的问题譬如由耦合电容产生了串扰噪声和延迟,IR drop引起的电压降,高电流密度引起的电迁移效应,以及混合信号设计中DC-path泄漏已经成为非常普遍的问题。对于整个芯片,在post-layout仿真时加上提取的寄生参数,有助于在设计中精确地分析每个寄生效应。快速Spice仿真器具有大的数据处理的容量和高的处理效率,因此这种仿真流程在设计中已经被广泛地应用。讨论如何在各种模式的仿真器(如UltraSim,NanoSim和HSIM)中选择合适的仿真器来进行post-layout仿真,以及不同的选择会有什么样不同的结果,另外还将对一些post-layout仿真结果进行分析。