Simultaneous switching noise and resonance analysis of on-chip power distribution network

Abstract

This paper presents a frequency-domain technique for finding the worst-case time-domain voltage variations in the RLC power bus of digital VLSI circuits. Pattern independent maximum envelope currents are used for the logic gates and macroblocks. The voltage drop/surge at a power bus node is expressed in term of the currents using sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity information together with an optimization procedure are applied to find the upper-bounds on the voltage variations at the targeted bus nodes. The resonance problem due to the on-chip RLC power distribution network is analyzed base on the frequency-domain sensitivity analysis. Comparisons to SPICE simulation of circuits extracted from layouts are used to validate our approach.