Crosstalk analysis and repeater insertion in crosstalk aware coupled VLSI interconnects

• Published in: Microelectronics international Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 55 - 63
• Main Authors: Kaushik, Brajesh Kumar, Sarkar, Sankar, Agarwal, R.P, Joshi, R.C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01-09-2006; MCB University Press
• Subjects: Analysis; Applied sciences; Circuits; Connectivity; Design; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Designers; Display; Electrical connections; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Inductance; Integrated circuits; Noise; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Semiconductors; Simulation; Studies; Transistors; Electrical connections; Inductance; VLSI circuit; Crosstalk; Coupled line; Plasma display panel; Driver; Receiver; Switching; Electrical connection; Energy dissipation; Interconnection; Integrated circuit; Capacitive load; Repeater; Delay time; Flat panel displays; Comparative study
• ISSN: 1356-5362; 1758-812X
• DOI: 10.1108/13565360610680776

Purpose - To analyze factors affecting crosstalk and to study the effect of repeater insertion on crosstalk, power dissipation and propagation delay.Design methodology approach - Crosstalk is effected by transition time of the signal; length of interconnect; distance between interconnects; size of driver and receiver; pattern of input; direction of flow of signal; and clock skew. This work is based on simulating interconnects with parameters obtained from 0.13 μm process. The types of noise addressed are overshoot; undershoot and oscillatory noise. Further, to study the effect of repeater insertion on crosstalk, repeaters are inserted in one line, i.e. line A only. Uniform repeaters varying in number from 1 to 60 are each of size Wn=3.9 μm and Wp=7.8 μm. Both lines A and B are terminated by a capacitive load of 5 fF. A crosstalk noise effect is measured for line A loaded with repeaters. The number of repeater is varied for four different cases of stimulations to both lines viz. input to line A, i.e. VA switching from low to high; input to line B, i.e. VB switching from low to high; input to line A i.e VA switching from low to high; input to line B, i.e. VB switching from high to low; VA switching from high to low and VB at static low; VA switching from high to low and VB at static high.Findings - This paper shows the prominent factors such as edge rate, length and pattern of inputs affecting the noise. It is observed that presence of inductive effects can seriously hamper the functioning of the chip. This paper further reveals that repeater insertion not only reduces the propagation delay but also crosstalk levels for coupled lines. Repeaters can be efficiently utilized for reduction of propagation delay and crosstalk noise at a trade of marginal increase in power dissipation. The power-delay-crosstalk-product (PDCP) criterion is introduced as an efficient technique to insert repeater in coupled interconnects. Based on PDCP a reduction in crosstalk of about 60 times and delay of 4.2 percent is achieved at trade of 13.2 percent increase in power dissipation in comparison to PDP.Originality value - The PDCP criterion is introduced as an efficient technique to insert repeater in coupled interconnects. Instead of PDP criterion, PDCP criterion is best suited for determination of optimum number of repeaters for overall minimization of delay, power and crosstalk.