This book provides complete step-by-step guidance on the physical implementation of modern integrated circuits, showing you their limitations and guiding you through their common remedies. The book describes today’s manufacturing techniques and how they impact design rules. You will understand how to build common high frequency devices such as inductors, capacitors and T-coils, and will also learn strategies for dealing with high-speed routing both on package level and on-chip applications. Numerous algorithms implemented in Python are provided to guide you through how extraction, netlist comparison and design rule checkers can be built. The book also helps you unravel complexities that effect circuit design, including signal integrity, matching, IR drop, parasitic impedance and more, saving you time in addressing these effects directly. You will also find detailed descriptions of software tools used to analyze a layout database, showing you how devices can be recognized and connectivity accurately assessed. The book removes much of fog that often hides the inner workings of layout related software tools and helps you better understand: the physics of advanced nodes, high speed techniques used in modern integrated technologies, and the inner working of software used to analyze layout databases. This is an excellent resource for circuit designers implementing a schematic in a layout database, especially those involved in deep submicron designs, as well as layout designers wishing to deepen their understanding of modern layout rules.
1 Introduction
2 Preliminaries
2.1 Silicon Manufacturing Basics
2.1.1 Basic Overview
2.1.2 Epitaxy
2.1.3 Oxidation
2.1.4 Photolithography
2.1.5 Etching
2.1.6 Doping
2.1.7 Deposition
2.1.8 Planarization
2.1.9 Wafer Stack-Up
2.1.10 Thinning
2.1.11 Singulation (Dicing/Cutting)
2.1.12 Bonding
2.1.13 Bumping
2.1.14 Packaging
2.1.15 Wafer-Level Probe Test
2.1.16 Final Test
2.2 Semiconductor Yield
2.2.1 Functional Yield
2.2.2 Parametric Yield
2.3 Layout Database Formats
2.3.1 Calma and GDSII
2.3.2 Oasis and Open Access
2.4 Schematic Netlist Formats
2.4.1 Spice Format
2.4.2 CDL Format
2.4.3 Spectre Format
2.5 Simulation Output Formats
2.6 Formats Used in the Book
2.7 Summary
2.8 Exercises
2.9 References
3 Device Formation in Layout
3.1 Process Stack-up
3.2 Fundamental Devices
3.2.1 Silicide Formation
3.2.2 Resistors
3.2.3 Maxwell’s Equations
3.2.4 Capacitors
3.2.5 Inductors
3.2.6 Transmission Lines
3.2.7 MOSFET Devices
3.2.8 Bipolar Devices
3.2.9 Summary of Device Manufacturing
3.3 Device Matching
3.3.1 Process-Related Causes of Mismatch
3.3.2 Layout Strategies to Minimize Mismatch
3.3.3 Design Strategies to Reduce the Effect of Mismatch
3.4 Manufacturing Challenges – Design Rules
3.4.1 Design Rule Derivations
3.4.2 Width Rules
3.4.3 Spacing Rules
3.4.4 Enclosure/Overlap Rules
3.4.5 Area Rules
3.4.6 Antenna Rules
3.4.7 Density Rules
3.5 Future Directions
3.6 Summary
3.7 Exercises
3.8 References
4 Layout with Ultra-Small Geometry CMOS Technologies
4.1 Small Geometry Effects
4.1.1 Thin Metal Effects
4.1.2 Strain Effects
4.1.3 Well Proximity Effect
4.1.4 Substrate Contact Distance Requirements
4.1.5 Electromigration and IR Drop
4.2 Small Geometry CMOS Flow
4.2.1 Strategies to Manage High-Resistance Interconnect
4.2.2 Strategies to Manage Parasitic Capacitance
4.2.3 Strategies to Manage Parasitic Inductance
4.2.4 Overall Parasitic Strategies
4.3 Summary
4.4 Exercises
4.5 References
5 Layout with Bipolar Technologies SiGe
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Process Flow
5.2.1 Physics of SiGe Bipolar Transistors
5.2.2 Collector Formation
5.2.3 Base Formation
5.2.4 Emitter Formation
5.2.5 Parasitics of Bipolar Transistors
5.2.6 PNP Transistors
5.2.7 Future Direction of SiGe transistors
5.3 Layout Flow
5.3.1 SiGe Technology Metallization
5.3.2 Transistor Layout Topologies
5.4 Other Technologies
5.4.1 InP HBT
5.4.2 GaAs HBT
5.4.3 Comparison of Different HBT Technologies
5.5 Summary
5.6 References
6 Aspects of High-Speed Layout 10–100+ GHz
6.1 Single-Ended Transmission Lines On-Chip
6.1.1 Layout Applications
6.2 Interface to Package and Circuit Board
6.2.1 Impedance-Matching Review
6.2.2 S-Parameters: What Does Matching Mean?
6.2.3 Impedance Matching: Circuit-Level Analysis
6.2.4 T-Coil Theory
6.2.5 Summary
6.3 Coupled Transmission Lines On-Chip
6.3.1 Fundamental Properties
6.3.2 Power Waves
6.3.3 Eigenmodes
6.3.4 Solution with Eigenmodes
6.3.5 Examples of Coupled Transmission Lines
6.4 Inductors and Capacitors at High Frequencies
6.4.1 Skin Effect
6.5 Layout Strategies
6.5.1 High Speed Analog Blocks
6.5.2 Analog and Digital Block Coexistence
6.6 Summary
6.7 Exercises
6.8 References
7 Extraction Techniques
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Basic Geometric Algorithms on Polygons
7.2.1 Definition of Polygons for Use in Layout Databases
7.2.2 Geometric Operations on Polygons
7.2.3 Geometric Operations in the Literature
7.3 Device Recognition Algorithms
7.3.1 Basic Technology
7.3.2 Supporting Software Architecture
7.3.3 Device Recognition Fundamentals
7.4 An Efficient Search Algorithm: k-d Tree
7.5 Connectivity Algorithms
7.5.1 Flat Layout Extraction
7.5.2 Hierarchical Layout Extraction
7.6 Parasitic Device Extraction
7.7 Summary
7.8 Exercises
7.9 References
8 Netlist Comparators
8.1 Historical Development
8.2 Mathematical Basis
8.2.1 Graph Theory Definitions
8.2.2 Graph Isomorphism Problem
8.3 A Few Simple Examples on Comparing Netlists
8.3.1 Some Specific Situations
8.4 A Python Implementation
8.4.1 Node Connectivity Algorithm
8.4.2 Build a Match Matrix
8.4.3 Single Matching Algorithm
8.4.4 Matrix and Operation
8.4.5 Isomorphism Verification Algorithm
8.4.6 Symmetry Match
8.4.7 Various Administrative Routines
8.4.8 Netlist Comparator
8.4.9 Various Improvements
8.5 A Larger Example with Unmatched Netlists
8.5.1 LVS Debug Report
8.5.2 A Mismatched Pair of Netlists
8.5.3 Summary
8.6 Other Algorithms
8.7 A Battletested LVS Flow for Integrated Circuits
8.8 Summary
8.9 Exercises
8.10 References
9 Design Rule Checkers
9.1 Implementations of Design Rules
9.1.1 Basic Data Structure
9.1.2 Implementing Basic Width Rules
9.1.3 Implementing Basic Spacing Rules
9.1.4 Interdependent Spacing and Width Rules
9.1.5 Overlap and Enclosure Rules
9.1.6 Notch Rules
9.1.7 Antenna Rules
9.1.8 Area Rules
9.1.9 Density Rules
9.1.10 Colorization and Related Complexities
9.2 Summary
9.3 Exercises
9.4 References