Robust calculation of crosstalk delay change in integrated circuit design
First Claim
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1. A computer implemented method of determining aggressor-induced delay change in a victim net of a stage of an integrated circuit design, the stage including a victim net driver gate, a receiver gate and an interconnect network including a victim net and an aggressor net, comprising:
- providing an input and output voltage dependent current model of the victim net driver gate;
producing a model of a load presented to an output of the driver gate by the interconnect network;
producing a model of the interconnect network of the stage, which can be used to propagate a waveform from an output of the driver gate to an input of the receiver gate;
simulating behavior of the victim net during nominal (noiseless) transition by performing steps including,providing a signal transition at an input of the driver gate;
using the current model of the driver gate and the load model of the interconnect network to produce a nominal driver gate output waveform resulting from the provided input signal transition; and
using the interconnect model to propagate the nominal driver gate output waveform from the driver gate output to the receiver gate input;
simulating behavior of the victim net during noisy transition by performing steps including,providing a signal transition at an input of the driver gate;
providing an aggressor-induced current waveform to an output of the driver gate;
using the current model of the driver gate and the load model of the interconnect network to produce a noisy driver gate output waveform resulting from the provided input signal transition and the aggressor-induced current waveform; and
using the interconnect model to propagate the noisy driver gate output waveform from the driver gate output to the receiver gate input;
providing an aggressor-induced voltage waveform to an input of the receiver gate;
producing a value representing a difference between delay associated with the simulated noiseless transition and delay associated with the simulated noisy transition; and
saving the produced value in computer readable memory.
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Abstract
A method of delay change determination in an integrated circuit design including a stage with a victim net and one or more aggressor nets capacitively coupled thereto, the method comprising: determining a nominal (noiseless) victim net signal transition; determining a noisy victim net signal transition; and determining a delay change based upon nominal and noisy victim signal transition arrival times at a victim net receiver output.
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Citations
56 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method of determining aggressor-induced delay change in a victim net of a stage of an integrated circuit design, the stage including a victim net driver gate, a receiver gate and an interconnect network including a victim net and an aggressor net, comprising:
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providing an input and output voltage dependent current model of the victim net driver gate; producing a model of a load presented to an output of the driver gate by the interconnect network; producing a model of the interconnect network of the stage, which can be used to propagate a waveform from an output of the driver gate to an input of the receiver gate; simulating behavior of the victim net during nominal (noiseless) transition by performing steps including, providing a signal transition at an input of the driver gate; using the current model of the driver gate and the load model of the interconnect network to produce a nominal driver gate output waveform resulting from the provided input signal transition; and using the interconnect model to propagate the nominal driver gate output waveform from the driver gate output to the receiver gate input; simulating behavior of the victim net during noisy transition by performing steps including, providing a signal transition at an input of the driver gate; providing an aggressor-induced current waveform to an output of the driver gate; using the current model of the driver gate and the load model of the interconnect network to produce a noisy driver gate output waveform resulting from the provided input signal transition and the aggressor-induced current waveform; and using the interconnect model to propagate the noisy driver gate output waveform from the driver gate output to the receiver gate input; providing an aggressor-induced voltage waveform to an input of the receiver gate; producing a value representing a difference between delay associated with the simulated noiseless transition and delay associated with the simulated noisy transition; and saving the produced value in computer readable memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium encoded with an information structure representing a driver circuit, the information structure comprising:
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a current model that associates instantaneous values of input node voltage, output node voltage and output node current of the driver circuit; a model of capacitance between an input node and an output node of the driver circuit; and a model of capacitance between the output node of the driver circuit and a ground potential; wherein the information structure is operable to cause a computer to associate current drawn by the driver circuit output node in response to voltages applied to the driver circuit input and output nodes. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium encoded with an information structure representing a driver circuit, the information structure comprising:
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a current model that associates instantaneous values of driver circuit input node voltage, driver circuit output node voltage and driver circuit output node current; a model of miller capacitance of the output node of the driver circuit; and a model of ground capacitance of the output node of the driver circuit; wherein the information structure is operable to cause a computer to associate current drawn by the driver circuit output node in response to voltages applied to the driver circuit input and output nodes. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium encoded with computer instructions to cause the computer to perform a circuit simulation process comprising the steps of:
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for each of a plurality of different pairs of first and second DC voltage values, sensitizing an input node of a cell model of the driver circuit with a first DC voltage value; sensitizing an output node of the cell model with a second DC voltage value; generating a value of current drawn by the output node of the cell model based upon the provided first DC voltage value and the provided second DC voltage value; and saving the generated value in computer readable memory. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium encoded with a current model of a driver circuit, the current model operable to cause the computer to associate input voltage values, output voltage values and current values, the current model produced by a process including the steps of:
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for each of a plurality of different pairs of first and second DC voltage values, sensitizing an input node of a cell model representing the driver circuit with a first DC voltage value; sensitizing an output node of the cell model with a second DC voltage value; and generating a value of current drawn by the output node of the cell model based upon the provided first DC voltage value and the provided second DC voltage value. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium encoded with instructions to cause the computer to perform a method of simulating aggressor-induced behavior of a driver circuit and an interconnect network driven by the driver circuit, the method comprising:
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providing a voltage signal transition on an input of a current model representing the driver circuit, the current model associating instantaneous values of input voltage, output voltage and output current of the driver circuit; providing an aggressor induced current waveform on a node interconnecting an output of the current model and a load model representing the interconnect network, the load model approximating output point admittance of the interconnect network; and using the current model and the load model to produce a voltage waveform on the output of the current model based upon the received input voltage signal transition and the received aggressor induced waveform; wherein the voltage waveform represents a voltage transition on the driver circuit output. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A computer implemented method of determining aggressor-induced delay change in a victim net in an integrated circuit design, the victim net including a driver circuit and an interconnect network between the driver circuit and a receiver circuit, the method comprising:
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simulating behavior of the victim net during nominal (noiseless) transition by performing steps including, providing a voltage signal transition on an input of the driver circuit; using a driver circuit current model and a load model approximating output point admittance of the interconnect network presented to an output of the driver circuit, to produce a nominal driver circuit output voltage waveform resulting from the provided transition signal; and using a computational model of the interconnect network to propagate the nominal driver circuit output voltage waveform to an input of the receiver circuit; simulating behavior of the victim net during noisy transition by performing steps including, providing a voltage signal transition on the input of the driver circuit; providing an aggressor induced current waveform to the output node of the driver circuit; using the driver circuit current model and the load model to produce a noisy driver circuit output voltage waveform resulting from the provided transition signal and the aggressor-induced current waveform; and using the computational model of the interconnect network to propagate the noisy output voltage waveform to an input of the receiver circuit; producing a value representing a difference between delay associated with the simulated noiseless transition and delay associated with the simulated noisy transition; and saving the produced value in computer readable memory. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium encoded with instructions to cause the computer to perform a method of determining aggressor-induced delay change in a victim net of a stage of an integrated circuit design, the stage including a victim net driver gate, a receiver gate and an interconnect network including a victim net and an aggressor net, the method comprising:
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simulating behavior of the victim net during nominal (noiseless) transition by performing steps including, providing a signal transition to an input of the driver gate; using a current model of the driver gate and a load model of the interconnect network to produce a nominal driver gate output waveform resulting from the provided input signal transition; and using a model of the interconnect network to propagate the nominal driver gate output waveform from the driver gate output to the receiver gate input; simulating behavior of the victim net during noisy transition by performing steps including, providing a signal transition at the input of the driver gate; providing at least one aggressor-induced current waveform to an output of the driver gate; using the current model of the driver gate and the load model of the interconnect network to produce a noisy driver gate output waveform resulting from the provided input signal transition and the at least one aggressor-induced current waveform provided to the driver gate output; and using the interconnect model to propagate the noisy driver gate output waveform from the driver gate output to the receiver gate input; providing at least one aggressor-induced voltage waveform to an input of the receiver gate; producing a value representing a difference between delay associated with the simulated noiseless transition and delay associated with the simulated noisy transition; and saving the produced value to computer readable memory. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50)
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51. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium encoded with instructions to cause the computer to perform a method of determining aggressor-induced delay change in a victim net of a stage of an integrated circuit design, the stage including a victim net driver gate, a receiver gate and an interconnect network including the victim net and an aggressor net, the method comprising:
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simulating behavior of the victim net during nominal (noiseless) transition by performing steps including, providing a voltage signal transition on an input of a the driver gate; using a current model of the driver gate and a load model representing the interconnect network, the load model approximating output point admittance of the interconnect network, to produce a nominal driver gate output voltage waveform in response to the input voltage transition; and using a computational model of the interconnect network to propagate the nominal driver gate output voltage waveform to an input of the receiver gate; simulating behavior of the victim net during noisy transition by performing steps including, providing a voltage signal transition to the input of the driver gate; providing an aggressor induced current waveform to an output of the driver gate; using the current model of the driver gate and the load model to produce a noisy driver gate output voltage waveform in response to the input voltage transition and the aggressor induced current waveform; and using the computational model of the interconnect network to propagate the noisy driver gate output voltage waveform to an input of the receiver gate; producing a value representing a difference between delay associated with the simulated noiseless transition and delay associated with the simulated noisy transition; and saving the produced value to computer readable memory. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
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Specification