Modeling of the Substrate Coupling Path for Direct Power Injection in Integrated Circuits
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Modeling of the Substrate Coupling Path for Direct Power Injection in Integrated Circuits Ali Alaeldine∗†, Richard Perdriau∗, Mohamed Ramdani∗, Etienne Sicard‡, M’hamed Drissi† and Ali M. Haidar§ ∗ESEO-LATTIS - 4, rue Merlet-de-la-Boulaye - BP 30926 - 49009 Angers Cedex 01 - France (e-mail : [email protected]) †IETR - INSA de Rennes - 20, avenue des Buttes de Coësmes - 35043 Rennes Cedex - France ‡LATTIS - INSA de Toulouse - 135, avenue de Rangueil - 31077 Toulouse Cedex 04 - France §Dept. of Computer Eng. and Informatics - Faculty of Engineering - Beirut Arab University - PO Box 11-5020 - Lebanon Abstract—This paper presents a substrate coupling path model Therefore, this paper aims at introducing suitable simulation for the direct power injection (DPI) of EMI disturbances into models for different EMI protection strategies in ICs, with the substrate of an integrated circuit (IC). This modeling is comparisons between simulations and measurements. For that achieved on a 0.18 µm test chip composed of several functionally identical cores, differing only by their EMI protection strategies purpose, a special test chip (CESAME) [8] will be used. (RC protection, isolated substrate), and takes into account these The paper is organized as follows. First of all, the internal different strategies. The comparison between simulation results structure of the CESAME test chip is introduced in Sect. and related measurements demonstrates that, once combined II. Then, Sect. III presents the DPI measurement set-up used with the complete model of the injection set-up itself, these in this study, along with its simulation model. The different models are helpful to choose the best protection strategy against electromagnetic disturbances. substrate models for the internal cores of the IC are described in Sect. IV. Finally, Sect. V provides a comparison between I. INTRODUCTION measurements and simulations, along with comparisons among For many years, integrated circuits (ICs), and digital blocks the efficiencies of different EMI protection strategies. in particular, have been the source of ever increasing electro- magnetic interference (EMI), due to higher clock frequencies II. TEST CHIP and data rates as well as decreased node capacitances. In A. Structure parallel, their immunity to EMI has decreased at the same pace, due to a steady reduction in power supply voltage and, The integrated circuit used in this study (CESAME) was consequently, noise margin. Therefore, the characterization designed and fabricated by ST-Microelectronics in 0.18 µm and modeling of their susceptibility is a topical demand. CMOS technology (1.8 V supply voltage), and was initially For that purpose, several measurement methods have been intended for the validation of low-emission design techniques developed and standardized by the IEC, including direct power [6] [8]. It consists of six logic cores which are identical from injection (DPI) [1] and bulk current injection (BCI) [2]. a functional point of view and are located on the same die, Both methods reproduce operating conditions, however, DPI but differ only by their protection strategies. All these cores is easier to set up and, therefore, was chosen for this study. are based on D flip-flops, a clock tree and standard gates, and In particular, substrate noise generated in an IC by either are intended to reflect the activity of a typical logic core [8]. internal logic or external sources can dramatically disturb the Each core includes 240 identical synchronous base cells, and operation of other analog and digital blocks, due to the low each base cell consists of 400 transistors (5 D-flip-flops, 25 resistivity of the substrate in modern ICs [3]. Various solutions NAND gates and 4 buffers). This IC is mounted on a custom [4] have been pointed out in order to enhance substrate printed circuit board (PCB), called ALI, which is displayed in shielding against electromagnetic interference. Moreover, pre- Fig. 1 (left). For the sake of simplicity, only 3 different cores vious authors [5] have already mentioned the use of substrate (NORM, ISO and RC) out of 6 are used, which are highlighted injection to characterize the behavior of an IC towards EMI. in dotted boxes in the right half of the same figure. 4 cores Later, this experiment was standardized using DPI test benches (NORM, RC, NOR and GRID) are built in the global substrate [6], and made it possible to identify the efficiency of substrate of the IC, while the other ones (ISO and ISV) are built in a shielding techniques through measurements. However, these local isolated substrate. "a posteriori" experiments require the fabrication of a test a) NORM core: The NORM core is built in the global chip. Conversely, the use of simulation for the prediction of substrate of the IC. The only EMI protection strategy used in immunity to substrate injection would avoid this fabrication. this core consists of two small 1.7 Ω series resistors, one on Simulation models for DPI tests on ICs have already been each power supply rail. These resistors, along with the metal developed [7], but only for Vdd injection. In order to estab- and MOS capacitances of the logic core, build up a RC filter, lish accurate simulation models of substrate DPI, modeling with a high cutoff frequency (about 200 MHz). The structure substrate coupling paths in ICs is a required additional task. of this core is depicted in Fig.3 (left). 978-1-4244-1699-8/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE the data output overshooting 20 % of its nominal voltage, or its jitter overshooting 10 % of the period. The transmitted power PTrans dissipated into the substrate of the circuit under test can be expressed from the measured incident power PInc : 2 PTrans =(1−|S11| ) PInc (1) where S11 is the reflection factor and PInc the incident power injected into the system under test. By replacing the reflection factor by its expression, Eq. 2 is obtained : Fig. 1. ALI test board and CESAME test chip with the 3 cores under 2 test (NORM, ISO and RC) in dotted boxes ZDUT − Z0 PTrans = 1 − PInc (2) ZDUT + Z0 in which ZDUT is the impedance of the device under test and b) ISO core: The ISO core uses a different EMI protec- Z0 the characteristic impedance of the sine-wave generator (50 tion strategy. It is embedded in its own local substrate, isolated Ω). By separating the real and imaginary parts of ZDUT ,the from the rest of the chip thanks to a triple-well technique exact expression of the transmitted power can be obtained : (Fig.4, left). This strategy has already been pointed out as very interesting for EMI shielding [4]. 4 Z0 Re(ZDUT ) PTrans = 2 PInc (3) c) RC core: In the RC core, built in the global substrate |ZDUT + Z0| like the NORM core, an additional 1-nF integrated decou- The expression in Eq. 3 is well suited to the calculation pling capacitor is inserted between both supply rails (Fig.5, of PTrans from measurements, owing to the use of power right). This distributed on-chip capacitor is made from several meters in DPI experiments. However, it is unusable for DPI poly1/poly2 capacitors, and increases the area of the RC electrical modeling and simulation, since power generators core by 40 % compared with the NORM core. By lowering are not available in common circuit simulators. A convenient the cutoff frequency of the RC filter (about 40 MHz), this solution consists in using a RF voltage source, and expressing technique allows the reduction of the power distribution noise the transmitted power as a function of source voltage instead arising from multiple drivers switching simultaneously [9]. of injected power(Eq. 4): B. Modeling and measurement conditions 4 Z0 2 PTrans = 2 VInc (4) The different cores of the CESAME chip can be activated |ZDUT + Z0| separately. In order to simplify modeling, only one core will be activated for each measurement and will be subject to power These expressions will be used in Sect. V in order to build up injection. Therefore, the DPI injection set-up used in this study immunity plots (in dBm) from electrical simulation results (in (and described in the following section) can be considered the V). only source of the noise dissipated into the substrate of the B. Modeling of the DPI set-up logic core under measurement. In order to predict the immunity of the cores, a compre- III. DPI SET-UP hensive model must now be developed for the injection set-up and the device under test (PCB and IC). A. DPI measurement method The model used for the injection set-up itself is a generic one The DPI injection method used in this paper has already suggested in [7], depending on the length of the directional been introduced in a previous paper [6] for the same set- coupler and its associated cables. The latter are represented up. Conducted-mode interference is injected through a probe by a transmission line adapted to 50 Ω, with a delay time Td V connected to the ss pin of each logic core under test through given by Eq.5: a 1 nF capacitor. This probe is fed by a 10 W power amplifier l 76.08 · 10−2 through a directional coupler, allowing the measurement of T = = = 2538 · 10−12 s d 8 (5) incident and reflected powers through a dual-channel power c 3 · 10 meter. However, only the incident power will be used in this in which l is the total length of the directional coupler and study for the representation of the measured and simulated its cables, and c the speed of light. immunity plots of each core. Likewise, the models of the PCB, the IC and the injection The data output of the circuit under test is connected to an probe have already been introduced in [8] and [7], respectively, oscilloscope (adapted to 1 MΩ) through a 1 MΩ passive probe, and are being re-used in this study.