No abstract

It is an accepted practice in signal delay estimation to model MOS digital circuits as RC circuits. In most cases Elmore's delay definition is applied. This paper has several objectives. First, it shows that Elmore's definition is exactly equivalent to the group delay of the network at zero frequency. Second, it presents a computationally efficient noniterative method to calculate this delay for networks with any linear elements and arbitrary topology. Third, it shows that in RC networks, under certain conditions, the Elmore delay and the 50% unit step response delay are related by a constant which is largely independent of the element values and topology. Finally, it presents an efficient method to obtain sensitivities of the delay with respect to any element in the network. These last two properties make design for specified delays feasible and computationally efficient.

No abstract

A novel fast true single phase clocking (TSPC) adiabatic differential logic circuit using dynamic threshold (DTMOS) is proposed (DT-TSPC-A). It is capable of operating at 0.7V. The performance of four circuit architectures (DT-TSPC-A, conventional static CMOS logic, and two other published adiabatic circuits) is compared using a four inverter chain as the test circuit. At 50MHz and 0.8V with 20fF load, this circuit consumes the least amount of energy of the four circuit architectures compared. It takes about the same area and consumes 55% less energy than the static circuit. It has the shortest delay and is 56% faster than other adiabatic circuits and takes at most 2.3 times the area. In addition results for more complex circuits are supplied demonstrating the improved performance of DT-TSPC-A circuits.

jabarby@vlsi.uWaterloo.CaAbsiract -A circuit simulator benchmarking methodology is developed that follows the philosophy that one wants t o exercise each of the simulators on each of the benchmark circuits and make a fair comparison of their performance. This methodology was tested out in a benchmarking of 6 commercial circuit simulatotx from 3 CAE companies using a new circuit simulator benchmark suite called CircuitSim93.