Integrated circuit and associated design method with antenna error control using spare gates

摘要

Antenna errors are corrected in an integrated circuit design utilizing spare gates distributed throughout the integrated circuit. An integrated circuit in accordance with the invention includes standard cells interspersed with spare gates. For example, the circuit may include one or more rows of spare gates arranged between groups of rows of standard cells, or islands of spare gates arranged between groups of rows of standard cells. A signal line of the integrated circuit having a detected antenna error associated therewith is coupled via one or more conductors associated with at least one metal layer of the integrated circuit to a diode or other antenna error control circuitry formed using at least one of the spare gates. The standard cells and spare gates are preferably placed in accordance with a placement operation of an automated place and route process of a standard cell computer-aided design (CAD) tool. The coupling of the signal line having the detected antenna error associated therewith to the antenna error control circuitry formed using at least one of the spare gates is preferably determined as part of a routing operation of the automated place and route process of the standard cell CAD tool. The spare gates are preferably implemented as spare gate cells using a base transistor structure compatible with the standard cell CAD tool.