access icon free Hybrid interconnect network for on-chip low-power clock distribution

Clock is regarded as the heartbeat of modern synchronous digital integrated circuits. However, with the CMOS technology shrinking, it becomes critical to deliver high-quality global clock signal with low propagation delay and hence conventional metallic interconnect seems to meet its bottleneck, as a clock distribution network (CDN) might consume up to 50% of the overall power. To address these problems, this Letter proposes a novel combination of wireless and conventional metallic interconnect to improve the performance of on-chip clock distribution. By incorporating integrated wireless clock transceivers and efficient modulation technique, overall performance has been increased significantly with a total delay reduction of 66.8% compared with a new cornerstone tapered H-tree model from 400 to 130 ps. In addition, clock uncertainties are now predictable according to the displacement of transceivers, 33 ps of clock skew at 2.5 GHz input with highly unbalanced loads could be found within the proposed CDN, and hence, indicates a promising potential of future high-performance on-chip clock distribution.

Inspec keywords: clock distribution networks; transceivers; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated circuit metallisation; CMOS digital integrated circuits; low-power electronics

Other keywords: delay reduction; clock uncertainties; integrated wireless clock transceivers; synchronous digital integrated circuits; clock distribution network; time 130.0 ps to 400.0 ps; high-quality global clock signal; metallic interconnect; modulation technique; CMOS technology; cornerstone tapered H-tree model; propagation delay; CDN; hybrid interconnect network; on-chip low-power clock distribution; clock skew; frequency 2.5 GHz

Subjects: Other circuits for digital computers; Metallisation and interconnection technology; Digital circuit design, modelling and testing; CMOS integrated circuits; Other digital circuits; Electrical/electronic equipment (energy utilisation)

http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/el.2018.6570
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