INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DESIGN USING DYNAMIC VOLTAGE SCALING

摘要

A method and an apparatus from such method for designing an integrated circuit (IC) that mitigates the effects of process, voltage, and temperature dependent characteristics on the fabrication of advanced IC's but provides high die yields, lower power usage, and faster circuits. Conventional design process takes into account power supply voltage Vdd as a variable that must be considered in a skewed corner analysis. The disclosure teaches that the IC design process can be substantially simplified by essentially factoring out voltage based variations in corner lot analysis for IC designs that include dynamic voltage scaling circuitry, because each fabricated IC die of an IC design having dynamic voltage scaling can individually adjust the applied supply voltage Vdd within a range to offset local process-induced variations in the performance of that specific IC die.

主权项

1. A method for designing an integrated circuit (“IC”), including the steps of:
(a) designing the IC to meet a voltage dependent frequency specification, the IC design including feedback circuitry for controlling a power supply voltage to a fabricated instance of the IC design; (b) characterizing a fabrication process for the IC design at a range of power supply voltage levels achievable by the feedback circuitry; (c) validating the IC design against the fabrication process if the frequency specification is achievable for essentially all instances of the IC design fabricated in accordance with the fabrication process by adjustment of the power supply voltage levels applied to such instances of the IC design within the range of the power supply voltage levels achievable by the feedback circuitry; (d) fabricating instances of the IC design using the characterized fabrication process; and (e) adjusting the power supply voltage of each instance of the IC design using the feedback circuitry so as to cause each such instance of the IC design to meet the frequency specification.