Trefzer, Martin Albrecht orcid.org/0000-0002-6196-6832, Walker, James Alfred orcid.org/0000-0003-2174-7173, Bale, Simon Jonathan et al. (1 more author) (2015) Fighting stochastic variability in a D-type flip-flop with transistor-level reconfiguration. IET Computers and Digital Techniques. pp. 190-196. ISSN 1751-861X
Abstract
In this study, the authors present a design optimisation case study of D-type flip-flop timing characteristics that are degraded as a result of intrinsic stochastic variability in a 25 nm technology process. What makes this work unique is that the design is mapped onto a multi-reconfigurable architecture, which is, like a field programmable gate array (FPGA), configurable at the gate level but can then be optimised using transistor level configuration options that are additionally built into the architecture. While a hardware VLSI prototype of this architecture is currently being fabricated, the results presented here are obtained from a virtual prototype implemented in SPICE using statistically enhanced 25 nm high performance metal gate MOSFET compact models from gold standard simulations for pre-fabrication verification. A D-type flip-flop is chosen as a benchmark in this study, and it is shown that timing characteristics that are degraded because of stochastic variability can be recovered and improved. This study highlights significant potential of the programmable analogue and digital array architecture to represent a next-generation FPGA architecture that can recover yield using post-fabrication transistor-level optimisation in addition to adjusting the operating point of mapped designs.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This content is made available by the publisher under a Creative Commons CC-BY Licence |
Keywords: | flip-flops; MOSFET; field programmable gate arrays, intrinsic stochastic variability; integrated circuit emphasis; hardware VLSI prototype; gold standard simulations; transistor level configuration options; next-generation FPGA architecture; post-fabrication transistor-level optimisation; simulation program; operating point; field programmable gate array; multireconfigurable architecture; virtual prototype; gate level; digital array architecture; prefabrication verification; D-type flip-flop timing characteristics; programmable analogue architecture; statistically enhanced high performance metal gate MOSFET compact models; technology process; design optimisation case study; size 25 nm |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Electronic Engineering (York) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/K040820/1 |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 28 Oct 2015 11:27 |
Last Modified: | 19 Dec 2024 00:05 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-cdt.2014.0146 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1049/iet-cdt.2014.0146 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:85856 |