ECE 720 ESL & Physical Design

Lecture 25:
Power Rail Analysis
Spring 2013
W. Rhett Davis
NC State University

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 1

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Announcements

Homework #8 Due Today

Project 2 Introduction Monday

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 2

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Todays Lecture

Power Rail Failure Modes

Rail Analysis with EPS/Voltage Storm

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 3

ECE 720

Spring 2013

The Power Rail Problem

Vdd

Vin

Vout
CL

Every time a gate switches, current flows

from the VDD rail or into the VSS/GND rail

Where does this current come from?

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 4

ECE 720

Spring 2013

A Typical Off-Chip I/O Plan

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 5

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Simplified Power Rail Model

Quarter
power pad

Rs

Rs
Rs

Rs
Rs

4Lp
Rs

Vdd

Quarter
4Lp ground pad

Rs

Rs

J ( s)xy

Source:
Huang, et al,
Elec. Comp.
& Tech. Conf.
2007

Cd xy

J(s) is a time-varying current source to model aggregate

current of many gates
Cd models wire capacitance, transistor source
capacitances, and added decoupling capacitance ("decap")

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 6

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Simplified Power Rail Model

Quarter
power pad

Rs

Rs
Rs

Rs
Rs

4Lp
Rs

Vdd

Quarter
4Lp ground pad

Rs

Rs

J ( s)xy

Source:
Huang, et al,
Elec. Comp.
& Tech. Conf.
2007

Cd xy

Inductors model bond wires

Typically very difficult to analyze by hand, due to large
number of resistors
Large matrix solvers or coarse analytical models needed

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 7

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Problem 1: IR-Drop

Also called "Voltage Droop"

Change in local supply voltage

Can cause intermittent

timing failures

Should static or dynamic analysis be used?

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 8

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Voltage Storm Static Analysis

Source: Cadence Encounter Power System

User Guide (wrapper for Voltage Storm and
other tools)

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 9

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Problem 2: Ldi/dt Noise

Also called "Simultaneous Switching Noise (SSN)"

or "Ground Bounce"

Bond-wire inductance causes

global ringing in the rail, which
can significantly increase
the change in rail voltage

Dynamic analysis needed

in Cadence Voltage Storm
to see these effects

Cadence claims this is necessary for sub 130nm techs

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Source: Gary Charles

Slide 10

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Cell-Based Analysis w/ VCD Files

Experiments show reasonably

good prediction of SSN using
currents from cell-based power
estimates from VCD files

Source: van Heijningen, Badaroglu. et al, JSSC 2002

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 11

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Problem 3: Electromigration

Mean Time to Failure

(Black's Equation: IEEE
Trans. Elec. Dev. 1969)
Ea

AT m kT
MTTF n e
j

Caused by collisions of
electrons with metal
atoms
Important to control
current density

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

j current density
Ea activation energy
T temperature
k Boltzmann's const.

Static or Dynamic Analysis?

Slide 12

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Todays Lecture

Power Rail Failure Modes

Rail Analysis with EPS/Voltage Storm

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 13

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Power Pad Location Files

Needed as input to specify where the power comes in

from off-chip
VDD.ppl

VDD 6.0 100.0 metal6

VDD

VSS

VSS.ppl
VSS 188.0 100.0 metal6

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 14

ECE 720

Spring 2013

VDD Rail IR-Drop Analysis

Results for ir (linear filters):
================================
worst-case IR-drop of
*
0.336 mV
* Data filtering results for IR drop:
*
Overall data minimum: 0.949664V
*
Overall data average: 0.949806V
number of nodes
*
Overall data maximum:
0.95V
in extracted RC network
*
* Filter 1: 39791 of 39791 data values fell into this filter.
*
filtered data range:
0.949664V 0.95V
*
filtered data average: 0.949806V
*
366 values were in range 1: 0.949664V - 0.949706V
*
9060 values were in range 2: 0.949706V - 0.949748V
*
17298 values were in range 3: 0.949748V - 0.94979V
*
2837 values were in range 4: 0.94979V - 0.949832V
*
542 values were in range 5: 0.949832V - 0.949874V
*
1405 values were in range 6: 0.949874V - 0.949916V
*
4748 values were in range 7: 0.949916V - 0.949958V
*
3535 values were in range 8: 0.949958V 0.95V

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 15

ECE 720

Spring 2013

IR Drop Analysis Plots

Plots are "zoomed out" so that rails cover layout

completely

Why are the areas of greatest IR drop toward

the center?

VDD
rail

W. Rhett Davis

VSS
rail

NC State University

Slide 16

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Useful Debugging Plots

Instance Total Power Plot (ip)

100-1000 nW
10-100 nW
1-10 nW

show highest power towards

center and bottom

Instance Switching Power

Density (W/cm2) (ipd_s)
shows more switching towards
the center of chip
May be the cause of large IRdrop towards center

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 17

ECE 720

Spring 2013

VDD Rail Effective Resistance

Results for reff:
===============

worst-case IR-drop of
0.336 mV

*
* Data filtering results for effective resistance:
*
Overall data minimum: 16.7789Ohm
*
Overall data average: 44.6578Ohm
*
Overall data maximum: 91.6936Ohm
number of instances
*
* Filter 1: 9194 of 9194 data values fell into this filter.
*
filtered data range:
16.7789Ohm - 91.6936Ohm
*
filtered data average: 44.6578Ohm
*
158 values were in range 1: 82.3293Ohm - 91.6936Ohm
*
577 values were in range 2: 72.9649Ohm - 82.3293Ohm
*
1179 values were in range 3: 63.6006Ohm - 72.9649Ohm
*
977 values were in range 4: 54.2362Ohm - 63.6006Ohm
*
1410 values were in range 5: 44.8719Ohm - 54.2362Ohm
*
1480 values were in range 6: 35.5075Ohm - 44.8719Ohm
*
1511 values were in range 7: 26.1432Ohm - 35.5075Ohm
*
1902 values were in range 8: 16.7789Ohm - 26.1432Ohm
W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 18

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Effective Resistance Plots

Effective Resistance of rail, from instance to pad

Instance power not considered
Helps to identify locations where decap can help
Decap can help up to a point, but adding additional
decap doesnt help if resistance is too high.

VDD
rail

W. Rhett Davis

VSS
rail

NC State University

Slide 19

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Other Useful Plots

Electromigration Risk (er)

Gaussian distribution assumed
around MTTF
Electromigration Models
not generated
Results appear to show areas
of large current density

Tap Current (er)

Current at each instance's
supply pin

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 20

ECE 720

Spring 2013

Notes

Dynamic Analysis not supported by this flow

Switching activity saved as a TCF (Toggle

Count File Cadence's version of SAIF)
TCF file used instead of VCD if it exists
allows discarding of VCD

No Decaps exist in our standard cell library

Power pad position, rail number/width are the only
things that we can change, currently

W. Rhett Davis

NC State University

Slide 21

ECE 720

Spring 2013