Delay bound based CMOS gate sizing technique

In this paper we address the problem of delay constraint distribution on CMOS combinatorial paths. We first define a way to determine on any path the reasonable bounds of delay characterizing the structure. Then we define two constraint distribution methods that we compare to the equal delay distribution and to an industrial tool based on Newton-Raphson like algorithms. Validation is obtained on a 0.25 μm process by comparing the different constraint distribution techniques on various benchmarks.