Introduction to

CMOS VLSI
Design

Lecture 1:
Circuits & Layout
David Harris

Harvey Mudd College

Spring 2004
 Outline
 A Brief History
 CMOS Gate Design
 Pass Transistors
 CMOS Latches & Flip-Flops
 Standard Cell Layouts
 Stick Diagrams

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 2

 A Brief History
 1958: First integrated circuit
– Flip-flop using two transistors
– Built by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments
 2003
– Intel Pentium 4 processor (55 million transistors)
– 512 Mbit DRAM (> 0.5 billion transistors)
 53% compound annual growth rate over 45 years
– No other technology has grown so fast so long
 Driven by miniaturization of transistors
– Smaller is cheaper, faster, lower in power!
– Revolutionary effects on society
1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 3
 Annual Sales
 1018 transistors manufactured in 2003
– 100 million for every human on the planet
Global Semiconductor Billings

200
(Billions of US$)

150

100

50

0
1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002

Year

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 4

Invention of the Transistor
 Vacuum tubes ruled in first half of 20th century Large,
expensive, power-hungry, unreliable
 1947: first point contact transistor
– John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs
– Read Crystal Fire
by Riordan, Hoddeson

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 5

 Transistor Types
 Bipolar transistors
– npn or pnp silicon structure
– Small current into very thin base layer controls
large currents between emitter and collector
– Base currents limit integration density
 Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors
– nMOS and pMOS MOSFETS
– Voltage applied to insulated gate controls current
between source and drain
– Low power allows very high integration

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 6

 MOS Integrated Circuits
 1970’s processes usually had only nMOS transistors
– Inexpensive, but consume power while idle

Intel 1101 256-bit SRAM Intel 4004 4-bit Proc

 1980s-present: CMOS processes for low idle power
1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 7
 Moore’s Law
 1965: Gordon Moore plotted transistor on each chip
– Fit straight line on semilog scale
– Transistor counts have doubled every 26 months
1,000,000,000

100,000,000
Integration Levels
Pentium 4
Pentium III
10,000,000 Pentium II
Pentium Pro SSI: 10 gates
Transistors

Pentium
Intel486
1,000,000

MSI: 1000 gates

Intel386
80286
100,000
8086
10,000 8080

1,000
4004
8008
LSI: 10,000 gates
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 VLSI: > 10k gates
Year

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 8

 Corollaries
 Many other factors grow exponentially
– Ex: clock frequency, processor performance
10,000

1,000 4004

8008

8080
Clock Speed (MHz)

100 8086

80286

Intel386

10 Intel486

Pentium

Pentium Pro/II/III

1 Pentium 4

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Year

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 9

 CMOS Gate Design
 Activity:
– Sketch a 4-input CMOS NAND gate

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 10

 CMOS Gate Design
 Activity:
– Sketch a 4-input CMOS NOR gate

A
B
C
D
Y

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 11

 Complementary CMOS
 Complementary CMOS logic gates
– nMOS pull-down network pMOS

– pMOS pull-up network pull-up

network
inputs
– a.k.a. static CMOS output

nMOS
pull-down
network
Pull-up OFF Pull-up ON
Pull-down OFF Z (float) 1

Pull-down ON 0 X (crowbar)

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 12

 Series and Parallel
 nMOS: 1 = ON a a a a a
0 0 1 1
g1


g2
pMOS: 0 = ON b
0
b
1
b
0
b
1
b
(a) OFF OFF OFF ON

 Series: both must be ON a a a a a

 Parallel: either can be ON g1

g2
0

0
0

1
1

0
1

1
b b b b b
(b) ON OFF OFF OFF

a a a a a

g1 g2 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1
b b b b b

(c) OFF ON ON ON

a a a a a

g1 g2 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1
b b b b b

(d) ON ON ON OFF

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 13

Conduction Complement
 Complementary CMOS gates always produce 0 or 1
 Ex: NAND gate
– Series nMOS: Y=0 when both inputs are 1
– Thus Y=1 when either input is 0
– Requires parallel pMOS Y
A
B
 Rule of Conduction Complements
– Pull-up network is complement of pull-down
– Parallel -> series, series -> parallel

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 14

 Compound Gates
 Compound gates can do any inverting function
 Ex: Y  AB  C D (AND-AND-OR-INVERT, AOI22)
A C A C
B D B D
(a) (b)

C D
A B C D
A B
(c)
(d)

C D
A
A B
B
Y Y
C
A C
D
B D
(f)

(e)

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 15

 Example: O3AI
 Y   A  B  C  D

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 16

 Example: O3AI
 Y   A  B  C  D

A
B
C D
Y
D
A B C

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 17

 Signal Strength
 Strength of signal
– How close it approximates ideal voltage source
 VDD and GND rails are strongest 1 and 0
 nMOS pass strong 0
– But degraded or weak 1
 pMOS pass strong 1
– But degraded or weak 0
 Thus nMOS are best for pull-down network

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 18

 Pass Transistors
 Transistors can be used as switches

s d

s d

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 19

 Pass Transistors
 Transistors can be used as switches

g g=0 Input g = 1 Output

s d 0 strong 0
s d
g=1 g=1
s d 1 degraded 1

g g=0 Input Output

g=0
s d 0 degraded 0
s d
g=1
g=0
s d strong 1

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 20

 Transmission Gates
 Pass transistors produce degraded outputs
 Transmission gates pass both 0 and 1 well

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 21

 Transmission Gates
 Pass transistors produce degraded outputs
 Transmission gates pass both 0 and 1 well
Input Output
g = 0, gb = 1 g = 1, gb = 0
g
a b 0 strong 0
a b g = 1, gb = 0 g = 1, gb = 0
a b 1 strong 1
gb

g g g
a b a b a b
gb gb gb

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 22

 Tristates
 Tristate buffer produces Z when not enabled

EN
EN A Y
0 0 A Y
0 1
1 0
EN
1 1
A Y

EN

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 23

 Tristates
 Tristate buffer produces Z when not enabled

EN
EN A Y
0 0 Z A Y
0 1 Z
1 0 0
EN
1 1 1
A Y

EN

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 24

 Nonrestoring Tristate
 Transmission gate acts as tristate buffer
– Only two transistors
– But nonrestoring
• Noise on A is passed on to Y

EN

A Y

EN
1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 25
 Tristate Inverter
 Tristate inverter produces restored output
– Violates conduction complement rule
– Because we want a Z output

A
EN
Y
EN

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 26

 Tristate Inverter
 Tristate inverter produces restored output
– Violates conduction complement rule
– Because we want a Z output
A A
A
EN
Y Y Y
EN

EN = 0 EN = 1
Y = 'Z' Y=A

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 27

 Multiplexers
 2:1 multiplexer chooses between two inputs

S
S D1 D0 Y
0 X 0 D0 0
0 X 1
Y
D1 1
1 0 X
1 1 X

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 28

 Multiplexers
 2:1 multiplexer chooses between two inputs

S
S D1 D0 Y
0 X 0 0 D0 0
0 X 1 1
Y
D1 1
1 0 X 0
1 1 X 1

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 29

 Gate-Level Mux Design
 Y  SD1  SD0 (too many transistors)
 How many transistors are needed?

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 30

 Gate-Level Mux Design
 Y  SD1  SD0 (too many transistors)
 How many transistors are needed? 20

D1
S Y
D0

D1 4 2
S 4 2 Y
D0 4 2
2

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 31

 Transmission Gate Mux
 Nonrestoring mux uses two transmission gates

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 32

 Transmission Gate Mux
 Nonrestoring mux uses two transmission gates
– Only 4 transistors
S

D0
S Y
D1

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 33

 Inverting Mux
 Inverting multiplexer
– Use compound AOI22
– Or pair of tristate inverters
– Essentially the same thing
 Noninverting multiplexer adds an inverter

D0 S D0 D1 S
S D1 S S
Y Y D0 0
S S S S Y
D1 1

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 34

 4:1 Multiplexer
 4:1 mux chooses one of 4 inputs using two selects

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 35

 4:1 Multiplexer
 4:1 mux chooses one of 4 inputs using two selects
– Two levels of 2:1 muxes
– Or four tristates S1S0 S1S0 S1S0 S1S0

D0
S0 S1

D0 0
D1
D1 1
0
Y Y
1
D2 0 D2
D3 1

D3

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 36

 D Latch
 When CLK = 1, latch is transparent
– D flows through to Q like a buffer
 When CLK = 0, the latch is opaque
– Q holds its old value independent of D
 a.k.a. transparent latch or level-sensitive latch

CLK CLK

D
Latch

D Q
Q

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 37

 D Latch Design
 Multiplexer chooses D or old Q

CLK
CLK
D Q Q
1
Q D Q
0
CLK CLK

CLK

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 38

 D Latch Operation
Q Q
D Q D Q

CLK = 1 CLK = 0

CLK

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 39

 D Flip-flop
 When CLK rises, D is copied to Q
 At all other times, Q holds its value
 a.k.a. positive edge-triggered flip-flop, master-slave
flip-flop

CLK
CLK
D
Flop

D Q
Q

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 40

 D Flip-flop Design
 Built from master and slave D latches

CLK CLK
CLK QM
D Q
CLK CLK CLK CLK
CLK
Latch

Latch

QM
D Q
CLK CLK

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 41

 D Flip-flop Operation
QM Q
D

CLK = 0

QM
D Q

CLK = 1

CLK

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 42

 Race Condition
 Back-to-back flops can malfunction from clock skew
– Second flip-flop fires late
– Sees first flip-flop change and captures its result
– Called hold-time failure or race condition

CLK1
CLK1 CLK2 CLK2

Q1 Q1
Flop

Flop

D Q2
Q2

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 43

 Nonoverlapping Clocks
 Nonoverlapping clocks can prevent races
– As long as nonoverlap exceeds clock skew
 We will use them in this class for safe design
– Industry manages skew more carefully instead
2 1
QM
D Q

2 2 1 1

2 1

1

2

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 44

 Gate Layout
 Layout can be very time consuming
– Design gates to fit together nicely
– Build a library of standard cells
 Standard cell design methodology
– VDD and GND should abut (standard height)
– Adjacent gates should satisfy design rules
– nMOS at bottom and pMOS at top
– All gates include well and substrate contacts

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 45

 Example: Inverter

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 46

 Example: NAND3
 Horizontal N-diffusion and p-diffusion strips
 Vertical polysilicon gates
 Metal1 VDD rail at top
 Metal1 GND rail at bottom
 32  by 40 

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 47

 Stick Diagrams
 Stick diagrams help plan layout quickly
– Need not be to scale
– Draw with color pencils or dry-erase markers

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 48

 Wiring Tracks
 A wiring track is the space required for a wire
– 4  width, 4  spacing from neighbor = 8  pitch
 Transistors also consume one wiring track

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 49

 Well spacing
 Wells must surround transistors by 6 
– Implies 12  between opposite transistor flavors
– Leaves room for one wire track

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 50

 Area Estimation
 Estimate area by counting wiring tracks
– Multiply by 8 to express in 

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 51

 Example: O3AI
 Sketch a stick diagram for O3AI and estimate area
– Y   A  B  C  D

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 52

 Example: O3AI
 Sketch a stick diagram for O3AI and estimate area
– Y   A  B  C  D

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 53

 Example: O3AI
 Sketch a stick diagram for O3AI and estimate area
– Y   A  B  C  D

1: Circuits & Layout CMOS VLSI Design Slide 54