MOS Design and Layout

Layout
Schematic

(the Final Frontier!)

Transistors

Stick Diagram

VLSI Layout

CMOS Logic Circuits

VDD

pullup network inputs pulldown network

VSS

out

Basic Idea = duality between pull-ups and pull-downs.

The structure of the pFET array is the dual of the nFET array!

Stick Diagrams

VLSI design aims to translate circuit concepts onto silicon. Stick diagrams are a means of capturing topography and layer information - simple diagrams. Stick diagrams convey layer information through color codes (or monochrome encoding. Does not show exact placement, transistor sizes, wire lengths, wire widths, tub boundaries, or any other form of compliance with layout or design rules. Useful for interconnect visualization, preliminary layout, layout compaction, power/ground routing, clock routing, etc.

MOS Layers in Stick Diagrams

Blue

Metal 1
Purple

Metal 2
Red

Poly
ndiff pdiff Contacts
Green Yellow Black
Can also draw in shades of gray/line style.

PMOS and NMOS Stick Diagrams

D

NMOS Transistor

S
D

PMOS Transistor

G S

CMOS Inverter Stick Diagram

Vdd

Demarcation Line

Vss

CMOS NAND GATE

Vdd

A B Vss

O/P

Stick Diagram - Example I

A
OUT

NOR Gate

Logic Circuits -- Duality

1.
2.

Every input is connect to both an nFET and a pFET.

Two logic arrays are required - one for pull up to +5v, one for pull down to ground. When the inputs are stable, only one logic block conducts. Series connected nFETs produce a NAND function. Parallel connected nFETs produce a NOR function Series connected pFETs produce a NOR function. Parallel connected pFETs produce a NAND function

3. 4.

5.

Stick Diagram - Example II

Power

Out

C B
Ground

Factors influencing MOS Layers in Stick Diagrams

Cost: i) The Layer which costs more, should be used few times. ii) The Layer which costs less, should be used frequently. iii) The order of layers in terms of decreasing cost: a)Polysilicon b) N-diff & P-diff c) Metal. Complexity: If the Layers cross over each other frequently, then complexity increases and vice-versa.

Logic Circuits I.
Multiplexer Example

Y = S * A + S * B
A Y B

Y = =

(S*A) + (S*B) (S*A) * (S*B)

DEF: (P*Q) = NAND(P,Q)

Y =

NAND( NAND(S,A),NAND(NOT(S),B))

Y =

NAND( NAND(S,A),NAND(NOT(S),B))

Vd
P P P NAND(S,A) S A N N N NOT(S)

Vss

Y =

NAND( NAND(S,A),NAND(S,B))

Vd
P P P
S

S A

NAND(NOT(S),B)
N

N N

N B

Vss

Y =

NAND(P,Q)

Vd
P P P P S A N N N B N N P P Q N N P P

Vss

Sticks Layout for 2:1 MUX

Vdd

A B S

Vss

Area = 17 * 4 = 68 2

NMOS Encoding
Name of Layer Stick Encoding
Polysilicon

Color
Red

N-diff, N-active
Metal1

Green
Blue

Implant
Contact Cut

Yellow
Black

NMOS Depletion and Enhancement

Stick diagram of nMOS invertor

NMOS Logic Example

Y=(A.B+C)
VDD

Y A B C VSS

BiCMOS Encoding

Stick diagram of BiCMOS invertor

Layout

Why Design Rules

When "drawing layouts from stick diagram, there are rules that apply to spacing and sizes. Scalability of Layout is achieved by defining the unit of measure of your drawing. For example, if you draw a box to represent the diffusion mask, how big is that box in terms of the actual size of the diffusion region created in the silicon wafer? One approach is to set up a translation between the scale used for the drawing. For example, when creating this Word document, there is a "ruler" on the top defining the page, with units "1," "2," "3," etc. These numbers represent inches when you print out the page with magnification = 1. The size of the box below is easily measured with a ruler.

DESIGN RULES

Mask layers are tools for manufacturing of ICs. Manufacturing processes have inherent limitations in accuracy. Design rules specify geometry of masks which will provide reasonable yields. i.e. size and spacing of layers.

Design rules (Contd..)

Allow translation of circuits (usually in stick diagram or symbolic form) into actual geometry in silicon Interface between circuit designer and fabrication engineer Compromise designer - tighter, smaller

fabricator - controllable, reproducible

Lambda Based Design Rules

Design rules based on single parameter, (lambda) :abstract unit. Scale the design to the appropriate actual dimensions using (.25m) when the chip is to be manufactured. Properties: 1) Simple for the designer 2) Wide acceptance 3) Provide feature size independent way of setting out mask 4) If design rules are obeyed, masks will produce working circuits 5) Minimum feature size is defined as 2 6) Used to preserve topological features on a chip 7) Prevents shorting, opens, contacts from slipping out of area to be contacted

Lambda Based Design Rules

Design rules for layers

Design rules for Transistors

Design rules for Contacts

Design rules for Contacts

Contact cuts

Butting Contact:

Poly to n-diff (p-diff) using metal.

Double Metal Process Rules

Metal2 is another metal layer which is Dark Blue or Purple. Metal2 should be used for global power and Clock rails. Metal1 should be used for local signal and power rails. The Contact between metal2 to metal1 contact is called VIA.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

Enables technology changes Enable design reuse Reduce design cost

Disadvantages

Not optimal design

2 Double Metal Double Poly CMOS/BiCMOS Rules - Layers.

2 Double Metal Double Poly CMOS/BiCMOS Rules - Transistors

2 Double Metal Double Poly CMOS/BiCMOS Rules - Contacts

N-well Spacing and Width

BiCMOS NPN Transistor Layout

Interconnect - Wiring Concepts

Basic Wiring Concepts

Interconnections between the Layers in the IC are represented by wires. These Wires have parameters such as

Resistance Capacitance Delay Rise and Fall Time Estimation.

These parameters have different values for different Technologies (1.2m, 2m, 5 m). Interconnect parameters impact

reduce reliability effect performance and power consumption

Modern Interconnect

RESISTANCE

Sheet Resistance (Rs)

Resistance of a square slab of Conducting layer or material is Sheet Resistance (Rs) . Length (L) = Width (W) Parameters of the layer.

X
t w

Let is Resistivity Let A is Area.

Sheet Resistance (Rs)

Rs=/t where = Resistivity, t = Thickness, Rs is Independent of Area of square. Rs of Layers depends on Resistivity and Thickness. For Poly and Metal Layers

Resistivity and Thickness are known easily. Diffusion Depth - Thickness. Doping Level Resistivity.

For Diffusion layers

Sheet resistance for layers

Silicide

Silicides are the interconnecting medium for the Polysilicon due to its low resitivity than Polysilicon.

Properties: Conductivity: 8-10 times better than Poly Resistivity : very less then Poly Examples:
Silicides: WSi 2, TiSi 2, PtSi 2 and TaSi

Silicide - Polycide Gate MOSFET

Silicide
PolySilicon SiO2

n+ p

n+

Silicides: WSi 2, TiSi 2, PtSi 2 and TaSi Conductivity: 8-10 times better than Poly Resistivity : very less then Poly

Dealing with Resistance

Selective Technology Scaling Use Better Interconnect Materials

reduce average wire-length e.g. copper, silicides reduce average wire-length

More Interconnect Layers

Interconnect Resistivity - Metals

Intel 0.25 micron Process

5 metal layers Ti/Al - Cu/Ti/TiN Polysilicon dielectric

CAPCITANCE

Area Capacitance of Layers

Conductive Layers are separated by dielectric in MOS Transistor, so parallel plate capacitive effects must be present. Area Capacitance is denoted by C.

C = 0insA / D Farads

Standard Area Capacitance values

Standard unit of Capacitance

Standard unit of Capacitance is the gate to channel capacitance of MOS Transistor having W=L feature size.
It is denoted by Cg. Cg can be evaluated for MOS transistors of different feature size.

Multilayer capacitances

Wiring Capacitances

Area Capacitance - Parallel Plate Model

L W

H tox

SiO2 Substrate

Fringing fields Capacitance

For wide conductors with W >> H, capacitance to substrate (of any ground plane) can be determined as a parallel plate capacitor For most real conductors in todays IC technology, fringing fields contribute a major part of the line capacitance and must be included in the capacitance calculations.

For W =~ H (below), fringing fields add more than the parallel plate portion to the total line capacitance.!

R. W. Knepper SC571, page 4-15

Fringing Capacitance effect for different W,H values

W>>H

(a)
H W - H/2

W=H

W=H/2

(b)

Fringing Capacitance: Values

Interlayer Capacitance
The capacitance effects when multiple layers cross or underlies another is known interlayer capacitance. This Capacitance leads to Cross-talk.
Level2 Insulator

Level1 SiO2 Substrate

Creates Cross-talk

Peripheral capacitance

N-diffusion regions form junction with p-well and P-diffusion regions form junction with n-well, which leads to Peripheral capacitance. The smaller area of diffusion regions leads to high value of peripheral capacitance. Diffusion formed by implant have negligible peripheral capacitance due to negligible depth. This capacitance value is greater than area capacitance.

Interconnect Cross-section for Dual Metal, Single Poly System

Delay Unit ()

When one standard gate area capacitance (1Cg) is charged through one feature size of n-channel resistance (1Rs), then delay unit () is = 1Rs x 1Cg sec. Delay unit can be calculated for 5m, 2m, 1.2m technologies respectively. value can be increased by a factor of 2 or 3, if we consider worst case delays.

Delay Unit ()

Delay unit value is approximately equal to Transit time (sd). Since Transit time depends on Vds, so as Delay unit (). So, can be calculated with Vds. All timings in the system can assessed with , so is the fundamental time unit.

Inverter Delays

Series NMOS Inverters Delay

Pull-down delay = Rpd x 1 Cg Pull-up delay = Rpu x 1 Cg Asymmetry in rise and fall due to resistance difference between pull-up and pull-down (factor of 4) (due to mobilities of carriers) Delay through a pair of inverters is (fall time) + 4 (rise time) Delay through a pair of NMOS inverters is therefore 5

Series CMOS Inverters Delay

Pull-down delay = Rpd x 2 Cg Pull-up delay = Rpu x 2 Cg Asymmetry in rise and fall due to resistance difference between pull-up and pull-down (factor of 2.5) (due to mobilities of carriers) Delay through a pair of inverters is 2 (fall time) + 5 (rise time) Delay through a pair of CMOS inverters is therefore 7

Formal Estimation of CMOS Inverter Delay

A CMOS Inverter discharges or charges through a Load capacitor CL , through which we can find Rise and Fall Times. Rise Time Estimation:

Fall Time Estimation:

Factors effecting Rise and Fall Time Delays

Mobility: Since mobility of electrons is 2.5 times greater than mobility of holes, Rise times have 2.5 times more delay than Fall times. So, the Width of P-Channel should be 2.5 times greater than n-channel. Load capacitance: Both Rise and Fall times are proportional. Source Voltage: Both Rise and Fall times are inversely proportional.

Effects of Delay Unit

In high speed digital circuits, signals on an interconnect line

are delayed by , which places a limiting factor on the speed of the network

VLSI processing are directed toward minimizing both

Rs and Cg.

Circuit designers are then faced with creating the fastest

switching network within the limits of delay.

Buffers may be used in long lines to reduce the total line delay.

Propagation Delays

Cascaded Pass Transistors

Pass Transistors are used in series or parallel for switch logic. If a signal Vdd is sent through a series of pass transistors, then the signal is degraded to Vdd-Vtp. A pass transistor can be assumed as RC network during the operation. Propagation Delay (p) can be calculated w.r.t distance x of the network. Overall Delay (d) is of n pass transistors can also be calculated through the series RC network. If n increases then d increases. So, the max value of n=4.

Long Poly and Diffusion wires

Long Polysilicon wires also represents RC networks, which increase signal delay. This results in slow rise time and then noise. If noise is present, output values will switch between 0 and 1 for inverters. Long Diffusion wires have high C value, which also increase signal delay. So both Poly and diffusion wires should be used for shorter distances only.

Minimizing Propagation Delay

In series pass transistors network, if a repeater is placed after 4 pass transistors, then delay will be decreased. For Polysilicon wires, use of repeaters (buffers or inverters). 1) speed-up the rise time. 2) guard the effects of noise. So the output will not be toggled especially for inverters.

Nature of Interconnect
Local Interconnect

Global Interconnect

SLocal = STechnology SGlobal = S Die

IDEAL WIRE

No impact on electrical behaviour of circuits Whole wire is an equi-potential region

Scaling of MOS Circuits

Scaling - Introduction

VLSI technology is constantly evolving towards smaller line widths Reduced feature size generally leads to

Better / faster performance More gate / chip

More accurate description of modern technology is ULSI (ultra large scale integration.

Scaling - Introduction

Properties of IC effected by Scaling

Minimum feature size. Number of gates on one chip. Power dissipation. Maximum operational frequency. Die size Production cost.

Full Scaling

Scaling Rules

Scaling Models

Constant Electric field Scaling Constant Voltage Scaling Combined Voltage and Dimension scaling.

Constant Electric field Scaling

Constant Electric field Scaling

Before Scaling After scaling

Constant Electric field Scaling

Constant Voltage Scaling

Scaling Factors - Combined voltage & Dimension scaling

In our discussions we will consider 2 scaling factors, and 1/ is the scaling factor for VDD and oxide thickness D 1/ is scaling factor for all other linear dimensions We will assume electric field is kept constant

Scaling Factors for Device Parameters

It is important that you understand how the following parameters are effected by scaling
Gate Area Gate Capacitance per unit area Gate Capacitance Charge in Channel Channel Resistance Transistor Delay Maximum Operating Frequency Transistor Current Switching Energy Power Dissipation Per Gate (Static and Dynamic) Power Dissipation Per Unit Area Power - Speed Product

Limitations of scaling

Substrate Doping

Built-in-potential VB depends on substrate doping level NB. VB should be added to Vdd for obtaining effective voltage. To scale down depletion width, NB should be increased and VB should also increase. Then Vdd should also be scaled. Now the total is the sum of VB and Vdd

Channel Length (L)

Scaling of Length depends on photolithographic technology. If Channel length (L) scaling is more, then depletion width decreases and depletion region of source comes closer to drain. To maintain proper transistor action, Channel Length should be twice the depletion width. It also depends on substrate doping and supply voltage.

Scaling Limits

Scaling of Interconnects
Resistance: Resistance of track R ~ L / wt R (scaled) ~ (L / ) / ( (w/ )* t (t /)) R(scaled) = R Therefore resistance increases with scaling. Thickness should be scaled less to decrease resistance. A w

Scaling - Time Constant

Time constant of track connected to gate, T = R * Cg T(scaled) = R * ( / 2) *Cg = ( / ) *R*Cg Let = , therefore T is unscaled! Therefore delays in tracks dont reduce with scaling Therefore as tracks get proportionately larger, effect gets worse Cross talk between connections gets worse because of reduced spacing

Scaling - Time Constant (Contd..)

Scaling device dimensions lengthens the interconnections in the chip. So resistance, capacitance and time constant increases. The effects are 1) Increased Propagation delay. 2) Signal decay. 3) Clock Skew. But delay of device will not increase.

Scaling - Time Constant (Contd..)

Remedies:

Multilayer interconnections with thicker and wider conductors reduce both R and C. Inclusion of cascaded drivers and repeaters in long interconnects. Optical fibers, Lasers are used as longer interconnects due to its advantage of high speed. The values of R and C are very less for optical fibers when compared to Metal (Al). Integration of GaAs with optical fibers is more compatible than integration of Silicon with optical fibers