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ULSl CUSTOM MICR OELECTR ON ICS DIGITAL, ANALOG, AND MIXED-SIGNAL STANLEY 1. HURST Faculty of Technology (Retired) The Open University Milton Keynes, England MARCEl MARCELDEKKER, INC. NEWYORK - BASEL DEKKER Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hurst, S. L. (Stanley Leonard) VLSI custom microelectronics : digital, analog, and mixed-signal / Stanley L. Hurst. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8247-0220-4 (alk. paper) 1. Integrated circuits—Very large scale integration—Design and construction—Data processing. 2. Computer-aided design. I. Title TK7874.75.H87 1998 621.39′5—dc21 98-31682 CIP This book is printed on acid-free paper. Headquarters Marcel Dekker, Inc. 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 tel: 212-696-9000; fax: 212-685-4540 Eastern Hemisphere Distribution Marcel Dekker AG Hutgasse 4, Postfach 812, CH-4001 Basel, Switzerland tel: 44-61-261-8482; fax: 44-61-261-8896 World Wide Web http://www.dekker.com The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in bulk quantities. For more information, write to Special Sales/Professional Marketing at the headquarters address above. Copyright 1999 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without per- mission in writing from the publisher. Current printing (last digit): 10987654321 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Preface In its short life span, microelectronics has become the most complex of our every- day technologies, embracing as it does physics, chemistry, materials, thermody- namics, and micromechanical engineering, as well as electrical and electronic engineering and computer science. No one person can hope to be expert in all these diverse aspects. Yet in spite of all this complexity and sophistication, we often take the end products for granted. Nowadays, our homes contain tens of thousands of transistors in domestic appliances, communications, and entertainment equipment, to add to the vast range of applications in industrial, military, space, and commercial products. To make all this possible has required the simultaneous evolution of not only the ability to fabricate the microelectronic circuits themselves, but also the ability to design them without errors in the first place and to test them appro- priately during and after production. This is not a text detailing silicon design and fabrication methods. Instead, it is principally concerned with the important branch of microelectronics dealing with custom circuits, whereby specific circuit designs required by original equipment manufacturers can be realized rapidly and economically in possibly small production quantities. The term application-specific IC (ASIC) has been widely used up to now, but the more accurate term user-specific IC (USIC) is now in- creasingly used. Custom circuits have only become viable with the maturity of both the circuit fabrication methods and the computer-aided design resources necessary for their design and test, thus releasing the circuit designer from per- sonal involvement in the range and depth of detail involved. However, having said this, it is the hallmark of a good engineer to be aware of all the aspects involved even though he or she may not need—or indeed, not be able—to do anything about them. This text adopts this approach, and attempts to give a comprehensive overview of all aspects of custom electronics, including the very important but difficult managerial decisions of when or when not to use it. The concept of custom microelectronic circuits is not new; it has been almost three decades since its simple conception, but it probably did not achieve very great prominence until the early 1980s. The introduction of the microprocessor as a readily available standard off-the-shelf part delayed the wider adoption of custom microelectronics and still is a major force in all the initial ‘‘how- shall-we-make-it’’ product design decisions. Nevertheless, custom ICs offer their particular technical or economic advantages, and every product designer should be aware of the strengths as well as the weaknesses of both custom and other design styles. These are the matters we shall consider in the pages of this text. It is assumed that the reader will be familiar with the principles of microelectronic devices, semiconductor physics, basic electronic circuits, and system design as covered in many standard teaching texts. For readers requiring a more detailed treatment than is given here, specific texts dealing solely with such areas as device physics, computer-aided design, or other aspects, should be consulted. Regrettably, no one book (and no one author!) can cover all these aspects in depth, but it is hoped that the references contained in these pages will point to such additional in-depth information. The principles of custom microelectronics are now well established, but in common with the whole of the microelectronics industry, there is a continual evolution in complexity of devices, in obsolescence of particular components and CAD resources, and in the rise and fall of industrial companies that make up the custom circuits field. It is therefore inevitable that some of the commercial products described in this text will no longer continue to represent the status quo, but the basic educational points being made using these illustrations should remain valid. It is therefore hoped that this book will enable readers to appreciate the broad spectrum of custom microelectronics and will serve as an appropriate refer- ence to whatever newer products and design strategies evolve in this field. Stanley L. Hurst Contents Preface 1 INTRODUCTION: THE MICROELECTRONICS EVOLUTION 1.1 Initial History 1.2 The Continuing Evolution 1.3 CAD Developments 1.4 Why Custom Microelectronics? 1.5 Summary 1.6 References 2 TECHNOLOGIES AND FABRICATION 2.1 Bipolar Silicon Technologies 2.2 Unipolar Silicon Technologies 2.3 Memory Circuits 2.4 BiCMOS Technology 2.5 Gallium-Arsenide Technology 2.6 A Comparison of Available Technologies 2.7 References 3 STANDARD OFF-THE-SHELF ICs 3.1 Nonprogrammable SSI, MSI and LSI Digital ICs 3.2 Standard Analog ICs 3.3 Microprocessors 3.4 Memory 3.5 Programmable Logic Devices 3.6 Logic Cell Arrays (LCAs) 3.7 Specialized Application-Specific Standard Parts (ASSPs) 3.8 Summary 3.9 References 4 CUSTOM MICROELECTRONIC TECHNIQUES 4.1 Full Hand-Crafted Custom Design 4.2 Standard Cell Techniques 4.3 Gate Array Techniques 4.4 Maskless Fabrication Techniques 4.5 Summary and Technical Comparisons 4.6 References 5 COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN 5.1 IC Design Software 5.2 IC Simulation Software 5.3 Silicon Compilers 5.4 CAD Hardware Availability 5.5 CAD Software Availability 5.6 CAD Costs 5.7 Summary 5.8 References 6 TEST PATTERN GENERATION AND DESIGN-FOR-TESTABILITY 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Basic Testing Concepts 6.3 Digital Test Pattern Generation 6.4 Test Pattern Generation for Memory and Programmable Logic Devices 6.5 Microprocessor Testing 6.6 Design-for-Testability (DFT) Techniques 6.7 PLA Design-for-Testability Techniques 6.8 I/O Testing and Boundary Scan 6.9 Further Testing Concepts 6.10 The Silicon Area Overheads of DFT 6.11 Summary 6.12 References 7 THE CHOICE OF DESIGN STYLE: TECHNICAL AND MANAGERIAL CONSIDERATIONS 7.1 The Microelectronic Choices 7.2 Packaging 7.3 Time to Market 7.4 Financial Considerations 7.5 Summary 7.6 References 8 CONCLUSIONS 8.1 The Present Status 8.2 Future Developments 8.3 Final Summary 8.4 References APPENDIX A: The Elements and Their Properties APPENDIX B: Fabrication and Yield APPENDIX C: The Principal Equations Relating to Bipolar Transistor Performance APPENDIX D: The Principal Equations Relating to Unipolar (MOS) Transistor Performance Symbols and Abbreviations 1 Introduction: The Microelectronics Evolution The development of microelectronics spans less than one half century—less than one person’s life expectancy—but during this short period it has become the most pervasive technology that has yet been developed. It touches all aspects of our lives, embracing communications, transportation, entertainment, medical matters, comfort and safety, and yet many professional design engineers have still to become involved in the design of original products using the full advantages of microelectronics. In this introductory chapter we will survey the developments which have led to the present levels of microelectronic expertise. As noted in the Preface, it will be assumed that the reader is already familiar with basic electronic components, particularly bipolar and MOS transistors, and also with basic electronic circuit configurations and semiconductor physics. We will not attempt to deal with these important fundamentals in any depth, but instead we will attempt to cover the subject in a way that is relevant to a design engineer who incorporates microelectronics as a means of producing new and innovative company products. The commercial hardware and software which may be mentioned in this text must not be taken as representative of what may be available now and in the future, since both are in a continuous dynamic state of rapid change and development, but rather are used in the following pages as illustrations of the principles and practice of the areas being discussed. 1.1 INITIAL HISTORY The development of the first transistor in 1948 was the start of the microelectronics evolution [1],

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