Technical Sessions

Monday, September 17 – Wednesday, September 19

 

Session 1 – Keynote Presentation

Oak Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

8:15 am            Welcome and Opening Remarks

Awards Presentations

Keynote Speaker Introduction

   Larry Wissel, General Chairman

 

8:30 am            Keynote Presentation

 

The Wireless Revolution Continues:

Can Technology Keep Up with the Challenge?”

 

Dr. Bill Krenik, Chief Technical Officer for Texas Instruments' Wireless Terminals Business Unit

 

The exploding market for consumer electronics is creating diverse product opportunities, with many products demanding unique technology features to enable successful performance, power-efficiency, size and cost. The wireless market is a high-growth market, and a critical driver of technology innovations. Whether creating a cutting-edge mobile phone with the hottest features or a modest handset required for high-growth emerging economies, a mobile designer is increasingly more challenged to satisfy product goals with existing technology. From the perspective of the industry-leading semiconductor provider entrenched in the wireless space, Bill Krenik, Chief Technical Officer for TI’s Wireless Terminals Business Unit, will address the critical technology, process and packaging challenges and solutions required to meet mobile market requirements for today and tomorrow.

 

 

 

Session 2 –3D and SiP

Oak Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Rakesh Patel

Co-Chair :  Ann Rincon

 

Two invited papers on 3D wireless high performance interchip communications using capacitive and inductive interconnect techniques are presented.  In addition, resonant clocking in CMOS is explored for active jitter deskewing.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

2.1

10:05 am

3D Capacitive Interconnections for High Speed Interchip Communication (INVITED PAPER),  R. Canegallo, L. Ciccarelli, P.L. Rolandi, STMicroelectonics, A. Fazzi,  L. Magagni, F. Natali, R. Guerrieri University of Bologna, E. Jung, IZM Fraunhofer, L. Di Cioccio, CEA-LETI

 

A 3D Interconnection scheme based on capacitive coupling for high speed chip to chip communication has been implemented in a 0.13 µm  CMOS process. This work shows, with a synchronous approach data transmission at 900MHz with electrodes 15x15 µm2 and energy consumption of 41fJ/bit. With asynchronous approach we demonstrate with electrodes 8x8 µm2 a propagation of clock at 1.7GHz and a propagation delay of 420ps for general purpose signal with energy consumption of 80fJ/bit.

 

2.2

10:55 am

Low-Jitter Active Deskewing Through Injection-Locked Resonant Clocking,  Z. Xu and K. Shepard, Columbia University

 

Active deskewing is an important technique for managing variability in clock distributions but introduces latency and power-supply-noise sensitivity to the resulting networks. In this paper, we demonstrate how active deskewing can be achieved with resonant distributions without introducing significant jitter. The prototype network operates at a nominal 2-GHz frequency in a 0.18µm CMOS technology with more than 25 pF/mm2 of clock loading.

 

2.3

11:20 am

Wideband Inductive-coupling Interface for High-performance Portable System (INVITED PAPER),  H. Ishikuro, N. Miura and T. Kuroda, Keio University

 

This paper presents a wideband, low power, and low cost pulse-based inductive-coupling interface for wireless data transfer in high performance portable devices.  General aspects of wireless links are discussed to understand the position of inductive-coupling technique.  Two applications of the inductive-coupling links are introduced   One is a 0.14pJ/b inter-chip link for System-in-a-Package.  The other is a detachable wireless interface for chip monitoring through LSI package.  Circuit design techniques for power reduction and an extension of communication range are presented.

 

 

Session 3 – Extreme SRAMs

Fir Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Takashi Akioka

Co-Chair:  Tom Andre

 

These papers explore state-of-the-art SRAMs as well as new structures and analysis techniques to enable SRAM scaling into future technology generations.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

 

3.1

10:05 am

A 550ps Access-Time Compilable SRAM in 65nm CMOS Technology,  L. Wissel, H. Pilo, C. LeBlanc, X. Wang, S. Lamphier and M. Fragano, IBM

 

A fixed-configuration custom SRAM macro with a highly-scalable architecture was used as the basis for an ASIC SRAM compiler. The 256Kb fixed-configuration uses dynamic circuitry [1] and other design techniques, and has been demonstrated in silicon to have an access time of 550ps. The compilable SRAM extends the column mux options, and can be compiled from 2Kb to 1.1Mb. Novel circuitry is used for efficient redundancy implementation in both the row and column dimensions.

 

3.2

10:30 am

A Disturb Decoupled Column Select 8T SRAM Cell,  V. Ramadurai, R. Joshi and R. Kanj, IBM

 

This paper presents a novel 8T SRAM cell that provides a way to eliminate the column select read disturb scenario. The 8T cell is then used in conjunction with a sense-amp based architecure that minimizes read disturb to selected cells.  Fabricated hardware resuls and simulation of this architecture show improvements of cell Vddmin over traditional 6T cells by more than 150mV for 90nm PD/SOI technology.

 

3.3

10:55 am

Canary Replica Feedback for Near-DRV Standby VDD Scaling in a 90nm SRAM,  J. Wang and B. Calhoun, University of Virginia

 

Canary bitcells act as monitors in a feedback architecture to sense the proximity to the Data Retention Voltage (DRV) for SRAM bitcells during standby voltage scaling. This approach implements aggressive standby VDD scaling by tracking PVT variations and gives the flexibility to tradeoff between reliability and leakage power savings. A 90nm SRAM test chip confirms the function of this closed-loop approach. Power savings improve by up to 30x compared with the conventional guard-banding approach.

 

3.4

11:20 am

Flex-Pass-Gate SRAM Design for Static Noise Margin Enhancement Using FinFET-Based Technology, S. O'uchi, M. Masahara, K. Sakamoto, K. Endo, Y.X. Liu, T. Matsukawa, T. Sekigawa, H. Koike and E. Suzuki, National Insititute of AIST

 

We propose a flex-pass-gate SRAM (Flex-PG SRAM), i.e., a FinFET-based SRAM to enhance both the read and write static noise margins (SNMs) independently. The flip-flop in the Flex-PG SRAM consists of usual FinFETs while its pass gates consist of double-“independent”-gate FinFETs, four-terminal-FinFETs. A TCAD simulation revealed that the Flex-PG SRAM increases the read SNM by 70 mV even when its 6-sigma tolerance is ensured, without the cell size penalty and decrease in the write SNM.

 

3.5

11:45 am

Simple Statistical Analysis Techniques to Determine Minimum Sense Amp Set Times,  R. Houle, IBM

 

Simple statistical analysis techniques are described, involving a relatively small number of actual circuit simulations, to accurately determine the minimum required sense amp set time for memory designs. Techniques to generate and evaluate the statistical distributions for signal development, leakage and sense amp asymmetry are discussed with important implications to sense amp design.

 

 

 

Session 4 – Compact Models for Advanced

CMOS Technologies

Pine Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Brian Chen

Co-Chair :  Hidetoshi Onodera

 

Two invited papers present next-generation compact models of advanced SOI and multiple gate MOSFETs, followed by a regular paper on characterization and modeling of 65nm copper interconnect resistance.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

4.1

10:05 am

PSP-SOI: A Surface Potential Based Compact Model of Partially Depleted SOI MOSFETs (INVITED PAPER),  W. Wu, X. Li, G. Gildenblat, Arizona State University, G. Workman, S. Veeraraghavan, C. McAndrew, Freescale Semiconductor, R. van Langevelde, Philips, G. Smit, D. Klaassen, A. Scholten NXP Semiconductors and J. Watts, IBM

 

This paper reports recent progress on partially depleted (PD) SOI modeling using a surface potential based approach. The new model, called PSP-SOI, is formulated within the framework of the latest industry standard bulk MOSFET model PSP. In addition to its physics-based formulation and scalability inherited from PSP, PSP-SOI captures SOI specific effects by including a floating body simulation capability, a parasitic bipolar model, and self-heating. A nonlinear body resistance is included for modeling body-contacted SOI devices. The PSP-SOI model has been extensively tested on several PD/SOI technologies.

 

4.2

10:55 am

Charge-Based Compact Modeling of Multiple-Gate MOSFET (INVITED PAPER),  B. Iniguez, A. Lazaro, H. Abd El Hamid, O. Moldovan, B. Nae, URV, J. Roig, LAAS and D. Jimenez, UAB

 

We present new compact modeling techniques which have been applied for different types of multiple-gate MOSFETs. Long channel models are obtained by deriving a unified charge control model from the solution the 1-D Poisson’s equation. Scalable models for the short-channel effects have been developed by solving the 2-D or 3-D Poisson’s equation. We observed a very good agreement with numerical simulations of the characteristics of different multiple-gate devices. We also extended our compact models to the high frequency operation.

 

4.3

11:45 am

Characterization, Modeling and Extraction of Cu Wire Resistance for 65 nm Technology,  N. Lu, M. Angyal, G. Matusiewicz, V. McGahay and T. Standaert, IBM

 

We present an innovative and comprehensive approach to characterize and model interconnect resistance. We measured and analyzed Cu wire resistance data for multiple wire widths on 10 BEOL levels at multiple temperatures and, with SEM cross-section data, extracted all model parameters in IBM 65nm technology. The extracted SPICE wire resistance model includes the congregated effects of surface scattering, grain boundary scattering and surface roughness. New behavior of wire resistance is reported for the first time.

 

 

 

Session 5 – Oversampling A/D Converters

Cedar Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Jennifer Lloyd

Co-Chair:  Un-Ku Moon

 

This session highlights recent advances in oversampling ADCs including dynamic range improvements for both bandpass and lowpass modulators and improved tolerance for analog imperfections.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

5.1

10:05 am

A 63-mA 112/94-dB DR IF Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulator with Direct Feed-forward and Double Sampling,  T. Yamamoto, M. Kasahara and T. Matsuura, Renesas Technology Corp.

 

We developed a 10.7-MHz IF bandpass discrete-time 4th-order 4-bit delta-sigma modulator for AM/FM car radio tuners. Using direct feed-forward and double sampling, we have achieved a dynamic range (DR) of 112 dB in the 3-kHz AM bandwidth (BW) and a DR of 94 dB in the 200-kHz FM BW. The modulator occupies 3 mm2, in 0.15 µm CMOS technology, and draws 63 mA of current.

 

5.2

10:30 am

A Delta-Sigma Modulator with a Widely Programmable Center Frequency and 82-dB Peak SNDR,  K. Yamamoto, A. Chan Carusone and F. Dawson, University of Toronto

 

A 4-bit fourth-order delta-sigma modulator with a widely programmable center frequency is presented. Novel methods for quantizing and implementing the digitally programmable modulator coefficients enable performance comparable to state-of-the-art discrete-time fixed-frequency modulators at any center frequency from dc to 0.31fs in steps of 0.0052fs. The 0.18-µm 1.8-V CMOS prototype consumes 115 mW at a sampling frequency of 40 MHz. The peak SNDR and SNR over a 310-kHz bandwidth are 82 dB and 86 dB respectively.

 

5.3

10:55 am

A 94dB SFDR 78dB DR 2.2MHz BW Multi-bit Delta-Sigma Modulator with Noise Shaping DAC,  J. Chen and Y.P. Xu, National University of Singapore

 

A 5th-order multi-bit lowpass delta-sigma modulator employs a proposed noise shaping dynamic element matching (NSDEM) technique to remove DAC non-linearity error. Unlike most existing DEMs trading SNR for SFDR, the proposed technique improves both SFDR and SNR. The noise shaping is incorporated in the first integrator of the loop filter without any additional analog circuitry. The fabricated modulator chip achieves 94dB SFDR and 78dB DR in 2.2MHz BW and meets the ADSL2+ specifications.

 

5.4

11:20 am

A 18mW CT Sigma-Delta Modulator with 25MHz Bandwidth for Next Generation Wireless Applications,  X. Chen, Y. Wang, G. Temes, Oregon State University, Y. Fujimoto, P. Lo Ré, Y. Kanazawa, Sharp Corp., J. Steensgaard, Esion LLC

 

The design of a wideband low-power continuous-time (CT) Delta-Sigma modulator is presented in this paper. A modified feed-forward architecture is proposed to realize the low-power loop filter as well as cancel the out-of-band peaking in the signal transfer function. Several high-speed low-power design techniques are used in the circuits. The modulator achieves 60 dB dynamic range (DR) within 20 MHz signal bandwidth, and 55 dB DR within 25 MHz signal bandwidth. Clocked at 400 MHz, the modulator consumes only 10 mA current from a 1.8 V supply.

 

5.5

11:45 am

Multi-Bit Sigma Delta ADC with Reduced Feedback Levels, Extended Dynamic Range and Increased Tolerance for Analog Imperfections,  J.-Y. Wu, R. Subramoniam, Z. Zhang, A. Djabbari, P. Holloway,  M. Yousefi, M. Aslan, H. Hong and A. Bahai, National Semiconductor, F. Maloberti, University of Pavia

 

A novel second order sigma delta modulator (SDM) with 5-bit quantizer has been  proposed with simplified DAC arrays, high-order truncation noise shaping for increased tolerance to analog imperfections, and extended dynamic range for a maximum input signal swing of up to -0.45dBFS.  With truncation filter and pseudo SDM in the DSP, the truncation and saturation errors are compensated through the DAC arrays and the DSP.  The design was fabricated in 0.18µ Dual Gate Oxide (DGO) process.  A SNDR (Signal-to-Noise-and–Distortion Ratio) of 98.4 dB and a SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) of 108-dB were measured for a 31.25-KHz signal bandwidth at 8-MHz sampling frequency with a power consumption of about 14.7 mW.