Methodology to Achieve Higher Tolerance to Delay Variations in Synchronous Circuits

摘要

A methodology is proposed for designing robust circuits exhibiting higher tolerance to process and environmental variations. This higher tolerance is achieved by exploiting the interdependence between the setup and hold times, reducing the delay uncertainty caused by variations. An algorithm is proposed to determine the interdependent setup-hold pair of a register. A data path designed with the proposed setup-hold pair improves the overall tolerance to variations. The methodology is evaluated for several technologies to determine the overall reduction in delay uncertainty.