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Design Tools, Flows and Library Aspects during the FE-I4 Implementation on Silicon. Vladimir Zivkovic National Institute for Subatomic Physics Amsterdam, t he Netherlands. Microelectronics User Group (MUG) meeting Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics (TWEPP) 2011
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Design Tools, Flows and Library Aspects during the FE-I4 Implementation on Silicon Vladimir Zivkovic National Institute for Subatomic Physics Amsterdam, the Netherlands Microelectronics User Group (MUG) meeting Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics (TWEPP) 2011 Vienna, September 27th 2011
FEI4-A Architecture and Design Foundations • Innovations • - Region architecture (memory on pixel) • - Modular approach and distributed design • Low current operation, fault tolerance, digital and mixed-signal Test Benches for Simulation 3-2-3 Stack v v 8M 130 nm CMOS • Radiation hardness out of the box • Good power distribution • Essential when making the long columns • Substrate isolation (T3) • Essential when using standard cell synthesized logic Multi-site collaboration -> design repository necessary (SOS Cliosoft platform) Vladimir Zivkovic
Layout Foundation DM option chosen over LM for : Mind: local routing restricted to 3 metal layers due to bad local high density routing Isolated NMOS / PMOS T3 isolates the switching activity of digital circuits from the substrate and other blocks - very convenient for modular (core) – based designs More flexibility to provide good power distribution (low resistivity M8 and M7) Good shielding (M7 is less resistive, so M8 can be sacrificed to provide for a solid shield) Good for inter-block routing (low RC) Full MOSIS support Vladimir Zivkovic
Standard Cell Library – ARM • All digital blocks placed in T3-isolated pwells • A stable substrate (under T3 isolation) is guaranteed by enforcing a maximum distance of 100 μm between substrate contacts • Fully characterized and qualified, low-power version also available, as well as SEU-resistant • Extensive use of inherited connections • Some problems during delivery exchange experienced there due to the non-uniform distribution of the library Vladimir Zivkovic
Design Repository SOS design repository from cliosoft.com Repository hosted at LBNL and mirrored at all other sites Vladimir Zivkovic
Design Flow for FEI4 at NIKHEF (digital) • RTL creation with Verilog (no VHDL!) • Two-pass mapped flow for synthesis and DfT • Synopsys Design and DfT Compiler, Version B-2008.09-SP2 for linux • Placement and Routing • Cadence Encounter Digital Implementation (EDI) 9.1 • Cadence SoC Encounter v07.10-s219_1 (reference, backup) • Physical Netlist Verification and Sign-off • Statistical Timing Analysis (STA) with .spef, SynopysPrimeTime, Version B-2008.09-SP2 for linux • Physical Verification • Virtuoso 6.1.3 _> 6.1.4 Open Access • DRC, LVS, netlist extraction with parasitics with Calibre 2009.3_32.2 • ATPG • Synopsys TetraMAX ATPG, Version B-2008.09-SP2 for linux • Simulations • Cadence NcSim 8.2 -> NcSim 9.2 Vladimir Zivkovic
Readout Core Modification Design Flow going back and fourth between Synopsys and Cadence Top-level integration issues Layout boundary fixed Pin positions fixed Timing constraints the same 15% larger design had still to be fit in Vladimir Zivkovic
Design Flow for FEI4 at NIKHEF (analog) • Schematic capture, layout creation • Virtuoso 6.1.3 • Simulations • MMSIM 7.0 • Physical Verification • DRC • Assura 3.1.7 OA (easy to use, primary) • Calibre 2009.3_32.2 (final) • LVS • Assura3.1.7 OA • Calibre 2009.3_32.2 • Extraction • QRC EXT 7.12 Vladimir Zivkovic
Design Verification Efforts • Digital full chip simulations • Parasitic capacitances, process variations, interconnect delays included • Digital (block interconnect) extraction using Assura black-box approach • Standalone block simulations with extracted parasitics • Open Verification Methodology Environment (OVM) • This means that the real life commands/functions are converted into the testbench. Vladimir Zivkovic
Mixed-Signal Top-level Testbench Analog/Mixed-signal functionality check from the top-level Model driven test & verification development Each hardware component can be modeled at arbitrary level of abstraction Vladimir Zivkovic
ATPG and Test Assembly Flow Vladimir Zivkovic