VLSI Design - Introduction

and Recent Trends

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Very-large-scale integration (VLSI)

 The process of creating integrated circuits

by combining thousands of transistors into
a single chip.
 VLSI began in the 1970s when complex
semiconductor and communication
technologies were being developed.

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 WHY VLSI?
 Integration improves the design:
 lower parasitics = higher speed;
 lower power;
 physically smaller.
 Integration reduces manufacturing cost-
(almost) no manual assembly.

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 WHY BUILD INTEGRATED
CIRCUIT?
 IC Technology driving the whole innovative devices
and systems which effected the way we live.
 ICs are much smaller.
 consume less power than discrete component.
– easier to design and manufacture.
– more reliable than discrete system.
– can design more complex system.
The growth of electronic industry.

Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
THE ADVANTAGES OF ICs OVER THE DISCRETE
COMPONENTS
• Size
 much smaller both transistor and wires.
 leads to smaller parasitic resistances, capacitances
and inductances
• Speed
– communication within the chips are much faster than
between a chips on PCB.
– High speed of circuits on-chip due to smaller size.
• Power Consumption
– Logic operation within the chip consumes much less
power.
– smaller size -> smaller parasitic capacitances and
resistance -> require less power to drive the circuit.
Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 ADVANTAGES OF IC AT SYSTEM
LEVEL
• Smaller Physical Size
– can make a small electronic appliances. ie.
Portable TV, handheld cellular telephone…

• Lower Power Consumption

– reduce total power consumption on a
whole electronic circuit.
• Reduce Cost
– Reduction in number of components, Power
Supply requirement, Cabinets size, etc…

Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 VLSI AND YOU

 Microprocessors:
 personal computers;
 microcontrollers.
 DRAM/SRAM.
 Special-purpose processors.

Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 VLSI chips are used in:

Computers
Cellular phones
Gaming systems
DVD players, TVs
Watches
Cars
Medical devices
Pacemakers and coffee pots
Space stations
Greeting cards
…
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 The First Computer

The Babbage
Difference Engine
(1832)
25,000 parts
cost: £17,470

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
ENIAC - The first electronic computer (1946)

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 The Transistor Revolution

First transistor
Bell Labs, 1948

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 First Working Integrated Circuit

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 The First Integrated Circuits

Bipolar logic
1960’s

ECL 3-input Gate

Motorola 1966

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Intel 4004 Micro-Processor

1971
1000 transistors
1 MHz operation

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Intel Pentium (i7) Processor

 4.7 Billion
Transistors
 540 mm2 Area
 8-Core
 2.6 GHz

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 I
E M N
N A
I S V
G R
D A C E
I K
E N A S
N E
A D D T
E T M
E I E
R N N
S G T
S

Super Chip

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 System Specifications

Top Design Abstract HDL Model

Level
Logic Synthesis

Circuit Design

Physical Design

Manufacturing
Bottom
Design Level
Finished VLSI Chip
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Instruction Set Basic Components

Block Diagrams
Architectural Model,
RTL and Behavioral Model
Test Instructions

Logical Description Functionality

Component Level Ports & Connections

Electronic Logic Circuits Electrical Behavior

Silicon Logic Silicon Behavior

Design Complete
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Design Cycle

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 JOBS IN VLSI
Layout designers
Circuit designers
Architects
Test engineers
Fabrication engineers
System designers
CAD tool programmers
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 VLSI CAD SOCIETIES
 ACM SIGDA
 Special Interest Group in Design Automation
 DATC of IEEE Computer Society
 Design Automation Technical Committee

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 VLSI CAD CONFERENCES
 DAC
 Design Automation Conference
 ICCAD
 Int’l Conference on Computer-Aided Design
 ISPD
 Int’l Symposium of Physical Design
 ASP-DAC
 Asia and South Pacific DAC
 DATE
 Design Automation and Test in Europe
 ISCAS
 Int’l Symposium on Circuits and Systems
 ICCD
 Int’l Conference on Computer Design 22
Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Moore’s Law

In 1965, Gordon Moore noted that the

number of transistors on a chip doubled
every 18 to 24 months.
He made a prediction that
semiconductor technology will double its
effectiveness every 18 months

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
Dr.Raja
LOG2 OF THE NUMBER OF
COMPONENTS PER INTEGRATED FUNCTION

EE141Paul Perinbam
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

1959
1960
Moore’s Law

1961
1962

Electronics, April 19, 1965.

1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
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Introduction
 VLSI Technological Evolution ..

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Evolution in Complexity

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Transistor Counts
1 Billion
K Transistors
1,000,000

100,000
Pentium® III
10,000 Pentium® II
Pentium® Pro
1,000 Pentium®
i486
100 i386
80286
10 8086
Source: Intel
1
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Projected
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Courtesy, Intel Introduction
 TRANSISTOR SIZE PERSPECTIVE !!!!!

~40,000 (65-nm node) transistors could fit on cross-

section
~1,00,000 (22-nm node) transistors could fit on
cross-section
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Moore’s law in Microprocessors
1000

100 2X growth in 1.96 years!

Transistors (MT)

10
P6
Pentium® proc
1 486
386
0.1 286
8085 8086
Transistors
0.01 on Lead Microprocessors double every 2 years
8080
8008
4004
0.001
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Courtesy, Intel Introduction
 VLSI Technological Evolution …
thanks to Moore’s Law

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Frequency
10000
Doubles every
1000
2 years
Frequency (Mhz)

P6
100
Pentium ® proc
486
10 8085 386
8086 286

1 8080
8008
4004
0.1
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
Lead Microprocessors frequency doubles every 2 years

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Courtesy, Intel Introduction
 Power Dissipation
100

P6
Pentium ® proc
Power (Watts)

10
486
8086 286
386
8085
1 8080
8008
4004

0.1
1971 1974 1978 1985 1992 2000
Year

Lead Microprocessors power continues to increase

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Courtesy, Intel Introduction
 Power will be a major problem
100000
18KW
10000 5KW
1.5KW
Power (Watts)

1000 500W
Pentium® proc
100
286 486
10 8086 386
8085
8080
8008
1 4004

0.1
1971 1974 1978 1985 1992 2000 2004 2008
Year

Power delivery and dissipation will be prohibitive

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Courtesy, Intel Introduction
 Power density
10000
Rocket
Power Density (W/cm2)

Nozzle
1000
Nuclear
Reactor
100

8086
10 4004 Hot Plate P6
8008 8085 386 Pentium® proc
286 486
8080
1
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year

Power density too high to keep junctions at low temp

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Courtesy, Intel Introduction
 Not Only Microprocessors
Cell
Phone

Small Power
Signal RF RF

Digital Cellular Market

(Phones Shipped) Power
Management

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Units 48M 86M 162M 260M 435M Analog
Baseband

Digital Baseband
(DSP + MCU)
(data from Texas Instruments)

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Challenges in Digital Design
“Macroscopic Issues”
• Time-to-Market
• Millions of Gates
• High-Level Abstractions
• Reuse & IP: Portability
• Predictability
• etc.
…and There’s a Lot of Them!
?
Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam
“Microscopic Problems”
• Ultra-high speed design
• Interconnect
• Noise, Crosstalk
• Reliability, Manufacturability
• Power Dissipation
• Clock distribution.
Everything Looks a Little Different
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Introduction
 Design Abstraction Levels
SYSTEM

MODULE
+

GATE

CIRCUIT

DEVICE
G
S D
n+ n+

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Levels of abstraction

System Level Design

Architecture / Algorithm Level Design
Digital System Level Design
Logic/Gate Level Design
Circuit Level Design
Device Level Design (more …)

EDA tools are used to help

these transformations.

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 LAYERS of an ELECTRONIC PRODUCT

SMART PHONE

System with
Multiple IC’s
Integrated

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Design Metrics
 How to evaluate performance of a
digital circuit (gate, block, …)?
 Cost
 Reliability
 Scalability
 Speed (delay, operating frequency)
 Power dissipation
 Energy to perform a function

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Cost of Integrated Circuits
 NRE (non-recurrent engineering) costs
 design time and effort, mask generation
 one-time cost factor
 Recurrent costs
 silicon processing, packaging, test
 proportional to volume
 proportional to chip area

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 NRE Cost is Increasing

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Die Cost

Single die

Wafer

Going up to 12” (30cm)

From http://www.amd.com 43
Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Some Examples
Chip Metal Line Wafer Def./ Area Dies/ Yield Die
layers width cost cm2 mm2 wafer cost
386DX 2 0.90 $900 1.0 43 360 71% $4

486 DX2 3 0.80 $1200 1.0 81 181 54% $12

Power PC 4 0.80 $1700 1.3 121 115 28% $53

601
HP PA 7100 3 0.80 $1300 1.0 196 66 27% $73

DEC Alpha 3 0.70 $1500 1.2 234 53 19% $149

Super Sparc 3 0.70 $1700 1.6 256 48 13% $272

Pentium 3 0.80 $1500 1.5 296 40 9% $417

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 JOBS IN VLSI
Layout designers
Circuit designers
Architects
Test engineers
Fabrication engineers
System designers
CAD tool programmers

Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 VLSI CAD SOCIETIES
 ACM SIGDA
 Special Interest Group in Design Automation
 DATC of IEEE Computer Society
 Design Automation Technical Committee

Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 VLSI CAD CONFERENCES
 DAC
 Design Automation Conference
 ICCAD
 Int’l Conference on Computer-Aided Design
 ISPD
 Int’l Symposium of Physical Design
 ASP-DAC
 Asia and South Pacific DAC
 DATE
 Design Automation and Test in Europe
 ISCAS
 Int’l Symposium on Circuits and Systems
 ICCD
 Int’l Conference on Computer Design
Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Device for VLSI - NMOS Transistor
 Four terminals: gate, source, drain, body
 Gate – oxide – body stack looks like a
capacitor
 Gate and body are conductors
 SiO2 (oxide) is a very good insulator
 Called metal – oxide – semiconductor (MOS)
capacitor
 Even though gate is
no longer made of metal

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Device for VLSI - PMOS Transistor
Source Gate Drain
Polysilicon
SiO2

p+ p+

n bulk Si

 Similar, but doping and voltages reversed

 Body tied to high voltage (VDD)
 Gate low: transistor ON
 Gate high: transistor OFF
 Bubble indicates inverted behavior
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Transistors as Switches
 We can view MOS transistors as electrically
controlled switches
 Voltage at gate controls path from source to
drain g=0 g=1

d d d
nMOS g OFF
ON
s s s

d d d

pMOS g OFF
ON
s s s

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 VLSI Basic Building Block - CMOS Inverter

A Y VDD
0 1
1 0 OFF
ON
0
1
A Y
ON
OFF

A Y
GND
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Inverter Cross-section
 Typically use p-type substrate for nMOS
transistors
 Requires n-well for body of pMOS transistors

A
GND VDD
Y SiO2

n+ diffusion

p+ diffusion
n+ n+ p+ p+
polysilicon
n well
p substrate
metal1

nMOS transistor pMOS transistor

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Three-dimensional Integrated
Circuits
 Three-dimensional or vertical integration  to
boost the performance and extend the
capabilities of modern integrated circuits.

Shorter interconnect length in the vertical direction

Ability to combine dissimilar technologies within a
multi-plane system
Compatible with the integrated circuit design
process that has been developed over the past
several decades

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Interconnects

Repeaters are inserted at

specific distances to
improve the interconnect
delay.

Interconnect shielding to
improve signal integrity:

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Cross section of a JMOS inverter

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Reduction in wire length

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 A Heterogeneous 3-D System-on-chip
Comprising Sensor and Processing Planes

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EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Three-dimensional stacked inverter

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Various communication schemes for 3-D ICs

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Challenges for Three-Dimensional Integration

Technological/Manufacturing Limitations
Testing
Interconnect Design
Thermal Issues
CAD Algorithms and Tools

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Low Power VLSI – Silicon on Insulator
(SOI)
Fundamental physical limits in Bulk-Si devices
towards achieving low power operation:

 Decreasing carrier mobility due to impurity scattering

 Gate tunneling current is increasing as the gate
insulator becomes thinner
 P-N junction leakage is increasing as the junction
becomes shallower

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 What is SOI?

 The key feature of the SOI structure is the

layer of silicon dioxide just below the surface.
 It is called the buried oxide (BOX), and is
made by the oxidation of Si or oxygen
implantation into Si
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Advantages of SOI
 Negligible drain-to-substrate capacitance

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Advantages of SOI
 The independent body bias of SOI MOSFETs
makes them faster.
 No latch-up.

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Advantages of SOI
 Ideal device isolation and smaller layout area.
 SOI devices exhibit excellent radiation hardness
to alpha particles, neutrons and other particles.
 Small p-n junction leakage.

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Power-Aware Testing VLSI
Circuits
Design for Testability (DFT)
 To test a given circuit, we need to control and
observe the logic values of internal nodes.
 Some nodes in sequential circuits can be
difficult to control and/or observe.
 DFT techniques have been proposed to
improve the controllability and observability of
internal nodes.

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Testing VLSI Circuits……
Observation point insertion

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Testing VLSI Circuits……
Built-In Self-Test

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Testing VLSI Circuits……
Test Compression

n<m

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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction
 Thank You
Dr.JRPP
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Dr.Raja
EE141Paul Perinbam Introduction