Temperature dependent timing in standard cell designs

This paper proposes a methodology to simulate temperature dependent timing in standard cell designs. Temperature dependent timing characteristics are derived from standard delay format (SDF) files that are created by synthesis tools automatically based on SPICE characterizations. In addition, a fast calculation of temperatures using the equivalent Foster RC network is presented. A case study is also presented in this paper where the temperature dependent frequency variation of a ring oscillator is simulated demonstrating the necessity of temperature dependent timing simulations. An adaptively refineable partitioning method for simulating standard cell designs logi-thermally is proposed as well. This paper also introduces recent enhancements in the CellTherm logi-thermal simulator developed in the Department of Electron Devices, BME, Hungary. Finally, the simulation results are compared and verified with the SPICE compatible ELDO analog simulator from Mentor Graphics.