Effective on-chip inductance modeling for multiple signal lines and application to repeater insertion

摘要

A new approach to handle inductance effects for multiple signal lines is presented. The worst-case switching pattern is first identified. Then a numerical approach is used to model the effective loop inductance (Leff) for multiple lines. Based on a look-up table for Leff, an equivalent single line model can be generated to decouple a specific signal line from the others to perform static timing analysis. Compared to the use of full RLC netlists for multiple lines, this approach greatly improves the computational efficiency and maintains accuracy for timing and signal integrity analysis. We apply these models to repeater insertion in critical paths and find that, for a single line, the RLC model minimizes delay with fewer number of repeaters than RC model. However, for multiple lines, we find that same number of repeaters is inserted for optimal delay according to both the RC and RLC models.