Xiang Qiu, Malgorzata Marek-Sadowska
University of California, Santa Barbara
Wojciech Maly
Carnegie Mellon University
Designing VeSFET-based ICs with CMOS-oriented EDA Infrastructure
Outline
Introduction
Chain Canvas
Standard cell based physical design flow
Chain Canvas Vs. Basic Canvas
Conclusions
2
Introduction
3
Semiconductor markets are dominated by ASICs: high NRE cost, high performance, high volume.
FPGAs: low NRE cost, low performance, small volume
Medium volume? VeSFET-based ASICs may fill the gap between ASICs and
FPGAs. [1][2]
New technology huge efforts on design automation infrastructure.
Can we re-use CMOS EDA infrastructure for VeSFET-based designs? We focus on physical design flow in this talk.
[1] W. Maly, et. al, “Complementary Vertical Slit Field Effect Transistors,” CMU, CSSI Tech-Report , 2008.
[2] Y.-W. Lin, M. Marek-Sadowska, W. Maly, A. Pfitzner, and D. Kasprowicz, “Is there always performance overhead for regular canvas?” in Proceedings of
ICCD’08, pp. 557-562, 2008.
Vertical Slit Field Effect Transistor
3D twin-gate transistor[1]
easy fabrication with SOI-like process
Excellent electrical characteristics[2]
huge Ion/Ioff: 1e9
low DIBL: 13mV/V
near ideal subthreshold swing: 65mV/decade
low gate capacitance
r=50nm
h=200nm
tox=4nm
Nsub= 4e17/cm3
[1]. W. Maly, et. al, “Complementary Vertical Slit Field Effect Transistors,” CMU, CSSI Tech-Report , 2008.
[2]. W. Maly, et. al, “Twin gate, vertical slit FET (VeSFET) for highly periodic layout and 3D integration,” in Proc. of
MIXDES’11, pp.145-150, 2011. 4
VeSFET Structure[1]
65nm VeSFET
VeSFET based-IC Paradigm
Regular layout patterns
Canvases: geometrically identical VeSFETs arrays The same radius r and height h
Circuits are customized by interconnects Strictly parallel wires Diagonal (45- or 135-degree) wires
Advanced layout style: pillar sharing
A
A
A
A
B
B
B
B
VDD
GND
O
OO
VDD
n1
n1
2-input NANDbasic canvas
5
shared pillars
Chain Canvases
Transistors are rotated by 45 degrees
Each pillar is shared by two transistors
Transistors are chained
2X transistor density
The same interconnect design rules
6
Transistor Isolation
Some contacted transistors are unwanted.
Isolation
Physical
Electrical Apply cut-off voltage Short drain and source
Wasted area!
7
A
1
2
B
3
4T1 T2
X/X
3
2
Tp
DP
X
X
B
A
B
A
11 1
T1 T2Tp
A
A
B
B
X
X
1 2 3 4
A
A
B
B
1 2 3 4
Static CMOS-like Standard Cell Generation
CMOS-like layout patterns
aligned gate pillars connected by wires aligned poly gates
shared drain/source pillars diffusion abutment
CMOS cell generation algorithms can be reused.
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A B
O
gnd
vdd
A
A
A
B
B
B
O
Ovdd vdd
gnd
gnd gnd gnd
vdd vdd vdd
2-input NAND
Static CMOS-like Standard Cell Generation
Transistor isolation Diffusion break
Sizing by transistor duplication
Transistor size
=> effective transistor density
Vs. Basic Canvas cells
easier cell generation
shorter wires
CMOS diffusion
break
VeSFET transistor
isolation
A B
O
Ovdd vdd
gnd
A B
O gnd
A B
A B
Ovdd vdd
A B
vdd vdd vdd
gnd gnd gnd
92-input NANDX2
Similar to CMOS standard cell placement.
Neighboring rows share power/ground lines.
Power/ground lines are also for transistor isolation.
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Row-based Standard Cell Placement
N/FN
S/FS
shared power line
shared ground line
shared ground line
Inter-cell Routing
Two disjoint routing grids
Vias aligned with pillars: D/S pillars cannot connect to G pillars by only H/V wires
Jumper wires: diagonal wires bridging D/S- and G-grids.
Most inter-cell nets have both D/S pins and G pins.
Routing each single net
on both grids may need
multi layers of jumper
wires
Route each net on only
one grid, only one layer
of jumper wires
Greedy net partitioning
Balance routing demands
Balance pin density.11
Jumper wires
Cell Level Comparison
Design INV, BUF, NAND2, NOR2, AOI21, OAI21 on both canvases
Design 1X, 2X, 4X cells for each logic
More pillar sharing more area saving
Greater gate size
More gate inputs
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CELLBasic Canvas Chain Canvas
1X 2X 4X 1X 2X 4X
INV 8 16 32 12 18 30
BUF 16 32 64 18 30 54
NAND2 16 32 64 18 30 54
NOR2 16 32 64 18 30 54
AOI21 24 48 96 24 40 72
OAI21 24 48 96 24 40 72
AVG 1 1 1 1.15 0.93 0.83
Table 1. # of pillars occupied by cells mapped on BC and CC
Cell Level Comparison (Cont.)
Chain canvas
shorter wires
fewer vias
gate size , improvement
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1X 2X 4X
basic canvas chain canvas
Average intra-cell wire length
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1X 2X 4X
basic canvas chain canvas
Average intra-cell via count
13
Cell Level Comparison (Cont.)
Performance and power comparison
Smaller parasitic RC for CC-based cells.
Determine the frequency and power delay product (PDP) of a 5-stage ring oscillator.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1X 2X 4X
basic canvas chain canvas
Average RO frequency Average RO PDP
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1X 2X 4X
basic canvas chain canvas
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Circuit Level Comparison
LGSynth91 benchmarks with thousands of gates
Mapped with a library of 6 1X cells(INV, BUF, NAND2, NOR2, AOI21, OAI21).
CC-G: G-grid only routing
CC-G/DS: nets evenly spread on both grids.
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
area wire length # VIAs
BC CC-G CC-G/DS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
# metal layers15
Circuit Level Comparison (Cont.)
Static timing analysis
non-linear delay model for each cell.
parasitic inter-cell interconnect RC extracted by Star-RC.
Power estimation
Total interconnect capacitance
0.6
0.65
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
longest path delay total interconnectcapacitance
BC CC-G CC-G/DS
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Conclusions
17
We propose chain canvases, CMOS ASIC EDA infrastructure re-usable.
2X transistor density.
Transistor isolation reduces transistor utilization.
Transistor utilization improves as gate size increases.
Chain canvases Vs. Basic Canvases Easier cell generation
better routability
smaller parasitic capacitance
better performance
lower power consumption
slightly greater footprint area using unit size gates
Q & A
Thank you!
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