As the minimum feature size continues to shrink down, the interconnect resistance is getting more important. The wire RC delay now often limits the overall chip performance. In this paper, we address a wire width optimization in self-aligned double patterning (SADP) process, where wire widening and double via insertion are considered simultaneously to minimize the total wire delay of timing critical paths. For each of the wires on the critical paths, the candidate directions to which we enlarge the wire is identified while design rules are taken into account. Each candidate direction is then evaluated in terms of the potential wire delay reduction. We finally select an optimal widening configuration by reducing the problem into a minimum weight independent set (MWIS), which is solved by using an integer learning programming (ILP) solver. Experiments are conducted for a few test circuits; wire resistance is reduced by 22.4%, on average, which allows the clock period to be reduced by 12.5%.
Airgap refers to a void formed in place of some inter metal dielectric (IMD). It brings about the reduction in
coupling capacitance, which may contribute to improvement in circuit performance. We introduce two problems in this context. First is to choose the layers, where airgap should be applied, in such a way that total negative slack (TNS) is minimized for a given circuit. This has been motivated by the fact that best choice of airgap layers is different for different circuits. An algorithm is proposed to solve the problem, and is assessed against a naive approach in which airgap layers are simply fixed; additional 8% TNS reduction, on average of a few test circuits, is demonstrated. In the second problem, some wires of critical paths that are on non-airgap layers are reassigned to airgap layers such that TNS is further reduced; additional 3 to 14% of TNS reduction is observed.
Publisher’s Note: This paper, originally published on March 16th, was replaced with a corrected/revised version on March 28th. If you downloaded the original PDF but are unable to access the revision, please contact SPIE Digital Library Customer Service for assistance.
Interconnect corners should accurately reflect the effect of misalingment in LELE double patterning process. Misalignment is usually considered separately from interconnect structure variations; this incurs too much pessimism and fails to reflect a large increase in total capacitance for asymmetric interconnect structure. We model interconnect corners by taking account of misalignment in conjunction with interconnect structure variations; we also characterize misalignment effect more accurately by handling metal pitch at both sides of a target metal independently. Identifying metal space at both sides of a target metal.
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