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HOME (HTTPS://WWW.EMBEDDED.COM)/ TECHNICAL ARTICLE (HTTPS://WWW.EMBEDDED.COM/CATEGORY/TECHNICAL-

ARTICLE/)/ HOW TO USE COMPOSITE CURRENT SOURCE MODELING FOR CROSSTALK NOISE ANALYSIS

Technical Article (https://www.embedded.com/category/technical-article/)

How to use composite current
source modeling for crosstalk
noise analysis
 March 9, 2007 Embedded Sta
(https://www.embedded.com/author/embedded-sta /)
High quality geophones
Please contact us for more
details at [email protected]

This article describes the composite current source (CCS) noise

modelfor cell-level noise analysis. CCSisa modeling capability in
the open-source Liberty cell modeling standardthat encompasses
timing, noise and power. It models the transistor
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=transistor&x=&y=)behavior of a cell for accurate calculation
of noise-including couplednoise and noise propagation through
cells.

Signal-integrityanalysis
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_integrity) is critical at
geometries of 130nm and below. The impactof crosstalk
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosstalk) on delay must
beconsidered, as well as potential functional failures due to
noiseglitches on nets that should not be switching.

This article describes a cell-level model to enable accurate

ande icient functional noise analysis. CCS noise is a new current-
basedmodel that enables accurate noise analysis with results very
close to Spice simulation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPICE)

It precisely models injected crosstalk noise bumps and allows

moreadvanced analysis, such as propagated noise bumps and
driver
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=driver&x=&y=) weakening,without significant
characterization e ort.

With CCS noise, the noise immunity of the cells can be

obtainedduring analysis by using actual noise bump waveforms,
eliminating theneed for expensive cell-noise immunity
characterization. This dynamiccomputation of noise propagation
and immunity enables library
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml? High quality
term=library&x=&y=)characterization to be 100 times faster than geophones
table-based models.

The need for current-based drivermodels

Current-based driver models are necessary for accurate crosstalk
noiseanalysis. The desired cell current model for crosstalk noise
analysismust be able to interface Please contact us f
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml? more details at
term=interface&x=&y=) with arbitrary input sales@hgsproducts
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=input&x=&y=) noise waveforms andcoupled load
interconnect networks. CCS noise is an advanced currentdriver
model that captures both static and transient characteristics o he
cell.

The static component of the CCS noise model consists of a

currenttable as a function
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=function&x=&y=) of I/O
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=I/O&x=&y=) voltage levels, which can be providedthrough an
e icient DC
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=DC&x=&y=) analysis known as a basic V i V o (V in /V out )
model.
The key advantage of CCS noise is that it uses several
dynamicparameters to model the dynamic response of the cell
that a staticcurrent table cannot capture. Dynamic parameters are
extracted fromtransient analysis measurements that record the
response of the cell tocertain input transitions and noise bumps.

CCS noise can accurately model all crosstalk noise analysis

e ects,including noise calculation, noise propagation, driver
weakening andcombined noise propagation and noise injection.
In this context, noisecalculation refers to the calculation of an
aggressor net's injectednoise bump characteristics, assuming the
victim driver is quiet.

Noise propagation refers to the problem of propagating a noise

bumpthrough a circuit
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=circuit&x=&y=) cell, assuming there is no coupling in the
celloutput net. Combined noise propagation and noise injection
analysisrefer to the general case where there is noise propagation
through thevictim driver and noise injections by aggressors of the
victim net.

Driver weakening is a special case of noise combination, where

thepropagated noise is very small, but significantly reduces the
drivingstrength of the victim driver due to increased injected
noise bumpsize.
 Figure1. The green curves are input noise waveforms; blue curves

Extensive studies have shown that CCS noise is considerably

moreaccurate than other models for these crosstalk noise analysis
tasks,especially because of its noise dynamic parameters.

For example, Figure 1 aboveshows that propagated noise

waveforms computed using CCS noise matchSpice waveforms
much better than those computed using the basic  V i V o driver
model without the dynamic parameters.

Accurate noise analysis at 90nm and below also requires a

receivermodel that captures the dependency of e ective receiver
pincapacitance on input transition time and output load
capacitance.Single-value pin capacitance models common in
timing models are notsu icient.

The CCS noise analysis flow can take advantage of its

powerfultiming receiver model, which is dependent on input-
transition andoutput- load. The noise-analysis engine includes
varying inputcapacitance e ects of victim receivers; no extra
receivercharacterization is required. V i V o -based current driver
models bestcapture the behavior of a single channel-connected
block(CCB).

For complex circuit cells having more than one CCB, thetransistor-
level netlist of the circuit cell needs to be broken intomultiple
CCBs and a CCS noise model for each of those CCBs.

The transistor-level net list breaking and CCS noise model

parameterextraction are performed during cell characterization.
Oncecharacterized, the CCS noise model data are stored either on
a timingarc or on a pin in the cell library, depending on the
topology of thecircuit netlist.
For circuit cells having a single CCB for an I/O pin pair, one
noisemodel is extracted and stored on a timing arc. Such single-
stage cellsinclude most inverters, and NAND, NOR, AOI and OAI
gates etc. Forcircuit cells having two subsequent CCBs, two CCS
noise models arestored on a timing arc.

Such two-stage cells include most of the bu ers, and AND,

OR,AND-OR and OR-AND gates etc. For circuit cells having three or
moreCCBs (including most of the flip-flops), full adders, digital
macro
(http://www.embedded.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?
term=macro&x=&y=)blocks, CCS noise model data are stored on
pins.

Figure2. When the noise bump is large enough and the propagated noise bump

islatched by the sequential cell, it will cause a functional error bychanging the logic

value of the sequential cell.

Victim and aggressor net cross-couplingCross-coupling between a

victim net and its aggressor nets induces anoise bump on the
victim net when the aggressors switch. When the noisebump is
large enough and the propagated noise bump is latched by
thesequential cell, it will cause a functional error by changing the
logicvalue of the sequential cell (Figure2, above ).
It will also increase the dynamic power consumption induced by
noisebumps. The analysis tool should provide flexible reporting of
potentialnoise violations.

The designer may want to fix any large noise bump in the design
ormay only fix the noise bumps that can propagate all the way to
anendpoint such as the D pin of a flip-flop. Crosstalk analysis
toolssuch as PrimeTime SI
(http://www.synopsys.com/products/analysis/ptsi_ds.html)
canprovide detailed information about the source of the
propagated noiseviolation.

Figure3. U4 is a highly noise-immune cell and can tolerate noise withoutcausing a

failure.

Consider the scenario shown inFigure 3, above . U4 is a highly

noise-immune cell – it cantolerate a certain amount of noise
without causing a failure. Itspropagated noise is significantly
attenuated such that no functionalerror occurs in FF.

A CMOS circuit cell can tolerate a certain amount of noise

withoutcausing a failure at the cell output. This characteristic is
callednoise immunity. CCS noise information can be used to
calculate thenoise immunity of a cell during analysis.

Slack calculation
Using CCS noise and the actual shape of the input noise bump,
the noiseimmunity of the cell can be computed as well as the
noise slack – i.e.the amount of noise height that needs to be
added to the noise bump tocause a failure.

Figure4.The test circuit has two aggressor nets coupled to a victim net,which for

noise propagation analysis.

When the noise slack is negative, it means that the noise bump
hasexceeded the noise immunity parameters for the cell and can
beconsidered a failure. When the noise slack is positive, the noise
bumpis within the noise immunity parameters.

Figure 4 above shows theresults of a crosstalk noise correlation

with Spice. The test circuithas two aggressor nets coupled to a
victim net. It has a fan-out netfor noise propagation analysis.

Figure 4b compares CCSnoise and Spice waveforms for a typical

case. The di erence inwaveforms is barely discernible at the
resolution of the plot. Thecell-driving strengths, the input
transition times of the aggressordrivers and the lengths of
interconnects have been varied to cover manyscenarios for
accuracy correlation.
The noise bump height correlation at point A (for noise
calculation)is shown in Figure 4c . Thecorrelation at point B (for
both noise calculation and propagation) isshown in Figure 4d .

CCS noise delivers accurate noise calculation that includes

thee ects of noise propagation. Results with various designs
show thatCCS noise matches Spice simulation results with great
correlation.

Nahmsuk Oh is R&D Engineer andAlireza Kasnavi is R&D Manager at

SynopsysInc (http://www.synopsis.com) .

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