應用於先進製程標準元件之可移動式格點的 高品質迷宮繞線

Abstract

隨著製程不斷演進，基於可製造性的考量在積體電路設計的限制也變得更加大量且複雜。其中標準元件為組成電路的基礎，因此設計高品質的標準元件有助於產生更優良的電路。既有的標準元件佈局繞線演算法中廣泛使用格點式繞線，產生在格點上的金屬線段(on-grid metal)。然而，由可製造性設計規範帶來的繞線空間變小以及限制增加，不可避免必須使用一些偏離格線的金屬線段(off-grid metal)以有效爭取可用的繞線資源。本篇論文中我們提出一個可移動式格點的迷宮繞線演算法，對於標準元件可以同時兼容on-grid與off-grid的金屬線段進行繞線。實驗結果透過電路佈局驗證及設計規則驗證判斷成敗，其顯示使用可以移動式格點的繞線方法可以使15.3%的標準元件佈局由失敗改善為成功，同時在Metal 1與Metal 2有1.7% 及 11.1% 的線長改善，並改進標準元件品質。

With the advance of technology nodes, complex and huge numbers of design rules are developed to restrict integrated circuit (IC) designs under the considerations of design for manufacturability (DFM). Standard cells are the basic components of IC designs, and highly impact the quality of IC designs. Recently, grid-based routing is widely adopted in standard cell routing. However, off-grid routing is still necessary to solve design rule violations due to limited routing resource and increasing DFM restriction. In this paper we propose a maze routing algorithm with adjustable gridlines that can be on-gird and off-grid wires to complete high quality routing. The results examined by LVS and design rule check (DRC) show that proposed routing algorithm can increase success rate by 15.3%, improve Metal 1 and Metal 2 wirelength by 1.7% and 11.1%, and improve the standard cell quality.