This application claims benefit of priority under 35 USC §119 to Japanese patent application No. 2009-107604, filed on Apr. 27, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit device and a method of designing the same.
2. Related Background Art
Recently, due to a desire for lowering power consumption, the power supply voltage of semiconductor devices has been reduced in general, which has raised a problem of increasing off-leakage currents. Thus, a method of solving such a problem is desired in designing a layout of the semiconductor integrated circuits.
Further, as for a semiconductor integrated circuit device including metal insulator semiconductor field effect transistors (MISFETs), the problem of fluctuations in characteristics depending on the layout thereof is exposed according to the development in fine processing.
More specifically, due to a well proximity effect (hereinafter abbreviated as “WPE” simply) by which a threshold value Vth at which transistors are turned on/off fluctuates depending on a distance from a neighboring well boundary, a problem occurs in that as the distance from the well boundary decreases, the threshold value Vth increases and an off-leakage current reduces but a margin of operation timing decreases.
Since there is a relationship of trade-off between the off-leakage current and the margin of operation timing, if the dependency can be utilized appropriately in suitable places, it is possible to reduce the off-leakage current without deteriorating an operation speed of the semiconductor integrated circuits. Specifically, a larger influence by the WPE is preferable for a MISFET arranged along a circuit pass with a larger margin of operation timing, and a smaller influence by the WPE is preferable for a MISFET with a smaller margin of operation timing.
There is known a method of reducing an off-leakage current of a semiconductor integrated circuit without deteriorating its operation speed by manufacturing MISFETs of different Vth values. However, this method needs to have the same number of Vth control processes as the number of the Vth values, thus increasing costs for manufacturing.
In designing of the layout of a semiconductor integrated circuit of a cell standard system, standard cells are disposed based on a logical circuit diagram and, subsequently, interconnections are arranged and then filler cells are disposed in a blank area where none of the standard cells was disposed (for the layout of the filler cells, see Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. 2007-027290).
The WPE is generated by the filler cells and exerts an influence on the characteristics of the MISFETs arranged around the filler cell.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of designing a semiconductor integrated circuit device, said method comprising:
arranging standard cells which constitute a MISFET;
analyzing, by using a simulator, an operation timing and/or power consumption of the arranged standard cells and obtaining a result of the analysis;
identifying one of the standard cells that is desired to have improved properties as a cell of interest based on the obtained analysis result;
optimizing an arrangement and/or a shape of blank areas around the cell of interest taking into account an influence of a well proximity effect; and
replacing the blank area and/or the cell of interest with a cell having influence of well proximity effect.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising:
a first well of a first conductivity type semiconductor arranged on a substrate;
a second well of a second conductivity type semiconductor arranged on the substrate adjacent to the first well; and
a third well of the first conductivity type semiconductor arranged on the substrate adjacent to the second well in such a manner that the second well is sandwiched between the first well and the third well,
wherein a MISFET of the first conductivity type is arranged in a first region of the second well, and
assuming that a carrier conduction direction in the MISFET is a first direction and that a direction perpendicular to the first direction is a second direction, a length of the first region in the second well in the second direction is smaller than a length of a second region adjacent to the first region in the first direction and a portion of the third well facing the first region protrudes toward the second well.
Hereafter, some of embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, identical reference numerals are given to identical components, and repetitive description on the identical components will be described only in case of necessity. It is to be noted that in the following description, the size of a standard cell in a carrier conduction direction in a MOSFET is referred to as a width of the standard cell and the size of a filler cell in the same direction is referred to as a width of the filler cell. Further, a direction perpendicular to the carrier conduction direction in the MOSFET, that is, a gate direction is referred to as a height direction. The size of the standard cell in the height direction is referred to as a height of the standard cell, and the size of a filler cell in the height direction is referred to as a height of the filler cell.
Next, a description will be given of a method of designing a semiconductor integrated circuit device by using the designing apparatus for a semiconductor integrated circuit device of
First, a dedicated tool (not shown) generates a gate level netlist based on circuit operation specifications written in the hardware description language and feeds the gate level netlist to the standard cell arrangement unit 2 (step S1). The standard cell arrangement unit 2 reads standard cells from the library MR via the analysis unit 4, arranges the cells, and thus provides a first temporary layout (step S2).
Next, the analysis unit 4 analyzes operation timings and power consumption of the obtained first temporary layout, and checks for a margin of the operation timings and necessary power consumption levels for each of the standard cells (step S3).
Subsequently, the blank area optimization unit 6 identifies one cell of the standard cells that has a margin of the operation timing as a cell of interest, based on the result of the analysis. The blank area optimization unit 6 further optimizes the blank areas (step S4) by changing a shape and/or a position of blank areas around the identified cell of interest as to enhance its WPE, thus provides a second temporary layout. It is to be noted that the “cell of interest” refers to a cell to which attention is paid from an operator because better properties are desired; in step 4 of the present embodiment, attention is paid from the viewpoint that the cell is desired to have a smaller off-leakage current.
Next, the automatic interconnection unit 8 performs automatic interconnection processing on the second temporary layout in which the blank areas have been thus optimized (step S5) and supplies a resultant layout obtained by this processing to the analysis unit 4. The analysis unit 4 further analyzes the operation timings and power consumption of the layout obtained as a result of the interconnection processing, and checks for the margin of the operation timings and the necessary power consumption levels for each of the standard cells again (step S6).
Subsequently, the blank area optimization unit 6, based on a result of the second analysis, identifies one cell of the standard cells that is critical in operation timing or desired to have higher driving capability as a cell of interest from a viewpoint of improvements in operation speed and driving capability. The blank area optimization unit 6 further optimizes the blank areas (step S7) by changing the shape and/or the position of blank areas around the identified cell of interest so as to reduce its WPE. The result of the further optimization is supplied to the layout changing unit 12. The layout changing unit 12 then identifies at least a part of the optimized blank areas on which the WPE can be utilized, and replaces the identified blank area, or both of the identified blank area and the standard cells of interest, with the WPE-reduced cell or the WPE-enhancing cell (step S8). It is to be noted that the WPE-reduced cell refers to a cell in which the operation speed and the driving capability are improved by reducing its WPE, and the WPE-enhancing cell refers to a cell which is used to reduce the off-leakage current of a cell of interest by enhancing the WPE of the cell of interest.
The filler cell insertion unit 14 inserts filler cells into the blank areas in the layout which is changed by replacement by the WPE-reduced cell or the WPE-enhancing cell (step S9).
Furthermore, the analysis unit 4 performs the third analysis on the operation timing and the power consumption of the circuit arrangement (which can be referred as “placement”) for which the insertion processing of the filler cells (step S10) is completed. The designing apparatus in
Next, a description will be given more specifically of the details of steps S4 and S8 of
In a layout shown in
Assume here that it is determined at the process of step S3 that a standard cell SC3 has a margin of operation timing. In this case, it is accepted for the transistors of the standard cell SC3 to have a raised ON/OFF threshold value and a lowered speed. Therefore, since the standard cell SC3 can be expected to have a suppressed off-leakage current, it is set as a cell of interest, in the process of step S8, a dummy element NMOS3 in the filler cell FC3 adjacent to an NMOS2 of the standard cell SC3 is replaced with a dummy element PMOS13 as shown on the right side of the sheet of
In such a manner, in the present embodiment, by replacing the dummy element NMOS3 adjacent to the NMOS2 of the standard cell SC3 with the PMOS13 having an inverted conductivity type rather than replacing the NMOS2 itself, it is possible to reduce a leakage current in the NMOS2 of the standard cell SC3. In contrast to the conventional techniques by which, for example, the WPE has been suppressed to secure the margin of timing, the present embodiment conversely utilizes the WPE positively, thereby enabling the reduction of the leakage current. It is to be noted that the PMOS13 in the filler cell corresponds to a “WPE-enhancing cell” which is used to enhance the WPE.
Conventionally, in the case of sequentially disposing the standard cells PMOS1 and NMOS2 and the filler cells NMOS3 and PMOS4 downward from the top of the sheet of
It is to be noted that although
Next, a description will be given more specifically of steps S7 to S9 which provide a characteristic process in the present embodiment, with reference to
In a layout shown in
If the cell does not have a margin of operation timing and is timing-wise critical or desired to have high driving capability, it is necessary to raise their operation speed by lowering the ON/OFF threshold value of its transistors, or to enhance the driving capability by increasing their sizes. For this purpose, from the viewpoint of preferably improving properties of the operation speed and the driving capability, the standard cell SC13 is set as a cell of interest and, as shown in
In such a manner, in the present embodiment, it is possible to replace a standard cell of interest and a filler cell adjacent to it with a cell having a different height, thereby improving the operation speed and the driving capability of the NMOS in the standard cell SC3.
It is to be noted that although
Further, information in which the WPE-reduced or WPE-enhancing degree is digitized (level-coded) can be beforehand added to the standard cell and may be utilized in layout change later.
A description will be given here in more detail of an initial layout (first temporary layout) at the process of step S2, the blank area optimization processing (step S7), and the replacement processing of the standard cell by the WPE-reduced/WPE-enhancing cell (step S8), with reference to
A description will be given more specifically of such initial layout, blank area optimization, and replacement thereof by a WPE-reduced/enhancing cell, with reference to an example where the interconnection processing is already conducted.
Next, one of the cells Ct1 to Ct3 of the timing-critical path that gives large effects in improvements of the operation timing if replaced with the WPE-reduced cell is extracted as a cell of interest. In the example shown in
Subsequently, the layout of the cells Cn1 to Cn8 and Cn10 to Cn15 of the non-critical path is changed so as to generate blank areas around the cell Ct2, which is effective in improvements by moving the cells Cn14 and Cn15. In the example shown in
Next, the blank area VR7 is divided into two blank areas VR8 and VR9, as shown in
Finally, as shown in
First, one of the cells Cn1 to Cn15 of the non-critical path is extracted that gives large effects in reduction of leakage currents if the WPE-enhancing cell (see, for example, the filler cell PMOS13 in
Subsequently, the layout of the original blank areas VR2, VR3, and VR5 and the cells Cn5 to Cn8 of the non-critical path is changed in such a manner that blank areas are generated around the cells Cn10, Cn12, and Cn14, respectively, by moving the cells Cn5-8. As a result, in the example shown in
Next, as shown in
Finally, as shown in
In the present embodiment, the blank area optimization and the replacement with the WPE-reduced/enhancing cell are accommodated in communication with the standard cell library. Accordingly, the off-leakage current can be suppressed, to provide a method for speedily and inexpensively designing a semiconductor integrated circuit device excellent in operation speed and driving force.
Although there has been described one embodiment of the present invention, it should be appreciated that the present invention is not limited thereto and its various modifications can be implemented within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment an explanation is made for a filler cell, taking a dummy cell constituted with a dummy MISFET as an example. However, the filler cell is never limited to such a dummy cell. For instance, the filler cell includes a cell containing no active areas or dummy gates, besides a cell constituted only by a dummy active area, and a cell constituted only by a dummy gate. Such a cell can be replaced with a cell having a different well structure as a standard cell. Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to a MOSFET that uses a silicon oxide film as an insulating film as an example of the MISFET, the present invention is not limited to it; for example, the present invention can be of course applied to a MOSFET that uses a silicon oxynitride film (SiON) or a hafnium (Hf)-based high-k film as the insulating film.
In addition, it is to be noted that it is not necessary to insert filler cells into all the blank areas.
Although the designing apparatus for a semiconductor integrated circuit device described in the above embodiment includes a plurality of separate components which function independently of each other, the present invention is not limited to it; for example, the present invention can be of course applied to an apparatus in which a general purpose engineering workstation is used to read a recipe file describing a method of designing a the semiconductor integrated circuit mentioned above, and which implements the method.
Furthermore, the blank area may be a filler cell filled with a dummy cell as is shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2009-107604 | Apr 2009 | JP | national |