Fast and Accurate Waveform Analysis with Current Source Models

Abstract

Recently current source models (CSMs) have become popular for use in standard cell characterization and static timing analysis. However, there has not been any detailed study of what aspects of the gate behavior should be modeled for sufficient accuracy, and there have been no results reported incorporating a CSM into a timing analysis flow with reasonable runtime. This paper addresses these limitations by investigating complexity/accuracy tradeoffs in CSMs. We then present a novel technique to perform fast, accurate waveform analysis using CSMs. STA results on benchmark circuits show significantly reduced errors compared to a traditional Thevenin-based flow. In terms of mu+sigma percentile, we gain by 20-150 % in slew through this approach.