Application of ring oscillators to characterize transmission lines in VLSI circuits

Author

Dutta, Lohit S. ; Hillmann-Ruge, Thomas

Author_Institution

Lab. fur Informationstechnol., Hannover Univ., Germany

Volume

18

Issue

4

fYear

1995

fDate

11/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

651

Lastpage

657

Abstract

This paper presents a method that enables an estimation of the per-unit-length capacitance of transmission lines on VLSI CMOS chips with the help of ring oscillators. For the determination of the line capacitance four different ring oscillators possessing transmission lines of various lengths are implemented upon test chips for process characterization. A simple analytical model of the ring oscillator is developed and a formula derived that estimates the per-unit-length capacitance of the transmission lines out of the periods of oscillation of the ring oscillators. SPICE simulation results (E-SPICE as well as H-SPICE) using process parameters for a 1.5-μm CMOS process are included. An experimental verification was also performed by implementing the ring oscillators on a test chip for a 0.8-μm CMOS technology. The determined line parameters are valid for a frequency range up to about 500 MHz

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; SPICE; VLSI; capacitance measurement; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated circuit testing; oscillators; transmission lines; 0.8 micron; 1.5 micron; 500 MHz; E-SPICE; H-SPICE; SPICE simulation; VLSI CMOS circuits; analytical model; capacitance; chip testing; ring oscillators; transmission lines; Analytical models; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Capacitance; Performance evaluation; Ring oscillators; SPICE; Testing; Transmission lines; Very large scale integration;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology, Part B: Advanced Packaging, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1070-9894

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/96.475271

Filename

475271