An On-chip PVT Resilient Short Time Measurement Technique

As the CMOS technology nodes continue to shrink, the challenges of developing manufacturing tests for integrated circuits become more difficult to address. To detect parametric faults of new generation of integrated circuits such as 3D ICs, on-chip short-time intervals have to be accurately measured. The accuracy of an on-chip time measurement module is heavily affected by Process, supply Voltage, and Temperature (PVT) variations. This work presents a new on-chip time measurement scheme where the undesired effects of PVT variations are attenuated significantly. To overcome the effects of PVT variations on short-time measurement, phase locking methodology is utilized to implement a robust Vernier delay line. A prototype Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) has been fabricated using TSMC 0.180 µm CMOS technology and experimental measurements have been carried out to verify the performance parameters of the TDC. The measurement results indicate that the proposed solution reduces the effects of PVT variations by more than tenfold compared to a conventional on-chip TDC. A coarse-fine time interval measurement scheme which is resilient to the PVT variations is also proposed. In this approach, two Delay Locked Loops (DLLs) are utilized to minimize the effects of PVT on the measured time intervals. The proposed scheme has been implemented using CMOS 65nm technology. Simulation results using Advanced Design System (ADS) indicate that the measurement resolution varies by less than 0.1ps with ±15% variations of the supply voltage. The proposed method also presents a robust performance against process and temperature variations. The measurement accuracy changes by a maximum of 0.05ps from slow to fast corners. The implemented TDC presents a robust performance against temperature variations too and its measurement accuracy varies a few femto-seconds from -40 ºC to +100 ºC. The principle of robust short-time measurement was used in practice to design and implement a state-of-the-art Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) for an industry partner to measure geometrical features of transmission parts with micrometer resolution. The solution developed for the industry partner has resulted in a patent and a product in the market. The on-chip short-time measurement technology has also been utilized to develop a solution to detect Hardware Trojans

Conception et procédés de fabrication avancés pour l’électronique ultra-basse consommation en technologie CMOS 80 nm avec mémoire non volatile embarquée

The increase of the scope of application and the performance of microcontrollers is accompanied by an increase in power consumption reducing the life-time of mobile systems (smartphones, tablets, laptops, biomedical implants, …). Here, the work consists of reducing the dynamic consumption of circuits manufactured in embedded non-volatile memories (e-NVM) CMOS 80 nm technology by improving the performance of MOS transistors. In order to increase the carriers’ mobility, manufacturing techniques used in the most advanced technological nodes (40 nm, 32 nm) are firstly studied according to different criteria (process integration, cost, current/performance gain). Then, selected techniques are optimized and adapted to be used on an e-NVM technological platform. The next step is to study how to transform the current gain into dynamic power gain without impacting the static consumption. To do so, the supply voltage and the transistor widths are reduced. Up to 20 % in dynamic current gain is demonstrated using ring oscillators and a digital circuit designed with 20,000 standard cells. The methodology applied on the circuit allows automatic reduction to all transistor widths without additional design modifications. Finally, a last study is performed in order to optimize the consumption, the performance and the area of digital standard cells through design improvements and by reducing the mechanical stress of STI oxide.L’accroissement du champ d’application et de la performance des microcontrôleurs s’accompagne d’une augmentation de la puissance consommée limitant l’autonomie des systèmes nomades (smartphones, tablettes, ordinateurs portables, implants biomédicaux, …). L’étude menée dans le cadre de la thèse, consiste à réduire la consommation dynamique des circuits fabriqués en technologie CMOS 80 nm avec mémoire non-volatile embarquée (e-NVM) ; à travers l’amélioration des performances des transistors MOS. Pour augmenter la mobilité des porteurs de charge, des techniques de fabrication utilisées dans les nœuds les plus avancés (40 nm, 32 nm) sont d’abord étudiées en fonction de différents critères (intégration, coût, gain en courant/performance). Celles sélectionnées sont ensuite optimisées et adaptées pour être embarquées sur une plate-forme e-NVM 80 nm. L’étape suivante est d’étudier comment transformer le gain en courant, en gain sur la consommation dynamique, sans dégrader la consommation statique. Les approches utilisées ont été de réduire la tension d’alimentation et la largeur des transistors. Un gain en consommation dynamique supérieur à 20 % est démontré sur des oscillateurs en anneau et sur un circuit numérique conçu avec près de 20 000 cellules logiques. La méthodologie appliquée sur le circuit a permis de réduire automatiquement la taille des transistors (évitant ainsi une étape de conception supplémentaire). Enfin, une dernière étude consiste à optimiser la consommation, les performances et la surface des cellules logiques à travers des améliorations de conception et une solution permettant de réduire l’impact de la contrainte induite par l’oxyde STI