A capacitive boosted buffer technique for high-speed process-variation-tolerant interconnect in UDVS application

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new capacitive boosted buffer technique that can be used in high speed interconnect for ultra-dynamic voltage scaling (UDVS) application with the process variation effect mitigated. The circuit is simple and fully compatible with digital CMOS technology. Implemented in a standard 0.18 mum CMOS technology, the circuit is shown applicable for both sub-threshold circuit and above threshold circuit without the problem of short current. Simulation results demonstrate the conclusion that the proposed new buffer is more robust to load, process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations. When applied to a simple H-tree clock network, the proposed buffer can reduce the skew by 5.5X when compared to that of the traditional buffer.