6.1 Statistically Based Worst Case Characterization



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6.1 Statistically Based Worst Case Characterization

It is well known that the performance of CMOS based digital circuits depends   on the current driving capabilities of the PMOS and NMOS transistors as well as the transistor and interconnect circuit capacitances. Fluctuations in processing conditions caused by manufacturing disturbances induce variations in these characteristics. In order to ensure proper circuit operation these variations have to be taken into account by circuit designers. A characterization of the center and the extremes of the process   region of variations has proven to be an effective method for the technologist to communicate the process capabilities to the VLSI circuit designers. In this section, a method to predict the variation in current driving capabilities, as measured by the saturation currents of the P- and N-channel   MOSFETs ( and ) is presented. Variation in other device and interconnect characteristics will not be addressed. It is noted though that the same methodology can be extended for these or other more general performance criteria.





Martin Stiftinger
Tue Aug 1 19:07:20 MET DST 1995