Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (전자공학회논문지)

The Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (대한전자공학회)
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Robust Placement Method for IR Drop in Power Gating Design

파워 게이팅 설계에서 IR Drop에 견고한 셀 배치 방법

  • 권석일 (성균관대학교 반도체디스플레이 공학과) ;
  • 한태희 (성균관대학교 정보통신대학)
  • Received : 2016.02.02
  • Accepted : 2016.05.31
  • Published : 2016.06.25
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Abstract

Power gating is one of effective techniques for reducing leakage current in semiconductor chip. However, power gating cell (PGC) which is used to switch the power source causes performance degradation and the associated reliability problem by increasing IR drop. However, the newly raised problem caused by different scaling properties between gates and metal wires demands additional considerations in power gating design. In this paper, we propose a robust cell placement based power gating design method for reducing the area for power gating cell and metal routing thus to meet IR drop requirement. Experimental results by applying the proposed techniques on the application processor for smartphone fabricated in 28nm CMOS process show that power gating cell area is reduced by 16.16% and maximum IR drop value is also decreased by 8.49% compared to existing power gating cell placement techniques.

파워 게이팅은 반도체 칩의 누설전류(leakage current)를 감소시키는 데 효과적인 기술로 알려져 있으며, 전원 차단용 파워게이팅 셀 (power-gating cell, PGC)에서의 IR drop 증가로 인한 성능 및 신뢰성 저하에 대해 많은 연구가 이루어져왔다. 그러나 최신 공정에서는 트랜지스터 사이즈 감소 추세에도 불구하고 금속 배선의 스케일링이 제한됨에 따라, IR drop에 견고한 파워 게이팅 설계 시 셀 배치와 금속 배선 면적을 고려한 새로운 접근 방식이 필요하다. 본 논문에서는 셀 점유율(cell utilization)과 소모 전류에 근거한 로직 셀 배치 기법을 통해 PGC 면적 및 IR drop을 개선한 파워 게이팅 설계 방법을 제안한다. 28nm 공정으로 제조된 스마트폰용 어플리케이션 프로세서(Application processor, AP) 내 고속 디지털 코어에 적용한 결과 기존 PGC 배치 기법 대비 PGC 면적은 12.59~16.16%, 최대 IR drop은 8.49% 감소함을 확인하였다.

Keywords

References

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