Crosstalk Noise Optimization by Post-Layout Transistor Sizing

Masanori HASHIMOTO
Hidetoshi ONODERA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences   Vol.E87-A    No.12    pp.3251-3257
Publication Date: 2004/12/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8508
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on VLSI Design and CAD Algorithms)
Category: Physical Design
Keyword: 
crosstalk noise,  capacitive coupling noise,  transistor sizing,  gate sizing,  post-layout optimization,  

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Summary: 
This paper proposes a post-layout transistor sizing method for crosstalk noise reduction. The proposed method downsizes the drivers of aggressor wires for noise reduction, utilizing the precise interconnect information extracted from the detail-routed layouts. We develop a transistor sizing algorithm for crosstalk noise reduction under delay constraints, and construct a crosstalk noise optimization method utilizing an analytic crosstalk noise model and a transistor sizing framework that have been developed. Our method exploits the transistor sizing framework that can vary transistor widths inside cells with interconnects unchanged. Our optimization method therefore never causes a new crosstalk noise problem, and does not need iterative layout optimization. The effectiveness of the proposed method is experimentally examined using 2 circuits. The maximum noise voltage is reduced by more than 50% without delay violation. These results show that the risk of crosstalk noise problems can be considerably reduced after detail-routing.