Cache memory design in the FinFET era

The major problem in the future technology scaling is the variations in process parameters that are interpreted as imperfections in the development process. Moreover, devices are more sensitive to the environmental changes of temperature and supply volt- age as well as to ageing. All these influences are manifested in the integrated circuits as increased power consumption, reduced maximal operating frequency and increased number of failures. These effects have been partially overcome with the introduction of the FinFET technology which have solved the problem of variability caused by Random Dopant Fluctuations. However, in the next ten years channel length is projected to shrink to 10nm where the variability source generated by Line Edge Roughness will dominate, and its effects on the threshold voltage variations will become critical. The embedded memories with their cells as the basic building unit are the most prone to these effects due to their the smallest dimensions. Because of that, memories should be designed with particular care in order to make possible further technology scaling. This thesis explores upcoming 10nm FinFETs and the existing issues in the cache memory design with this technology. More- over, it tries to present some original and novel techniques on the different level of design abstraction for mitigating the effects of process and environmental variability. At first original method for simulating variability of Tri-Gate Fin- FETs is presented using conventional HSPICE simulation environment and BSIM-CMG model cards. When that is accomplished, thorough characterisation of traditional SRAM cell circuits (6T and 8T) is performed. Possibility of using Independent Gate FinFETs for increasing cell stability has been explored, also. Gain Cells appeared in the recent past as an attractive alternative for in the cache memory design. This thesis partially explores this idea by presenting and performing detailed circuit analysis of the dynamic 3T gain cell for 10nm FinFETs. At the top of this work, thesis shows one micro-architecture optimisation of high-speed cache when it is implemented by 3T gain cells. We show how the cache coherency states can be used in order to reduce refresh energy of the memory as well as reduce memory ageing.El principal problema de l'escalat la tecnologia són les variacions en els paràmetres de disseny (imperfeccions) durant procés de fabricació. D'altra banda, els dispositius també són més sensibles als canvis ambientals de temperatura, la tensió d'alimentació, així com l'envelliment. Totes aquestes influències es manifesten en els circuits integrats com l'augment de consum d'energia, la reducció de la freqüència d'operació màxima i l'augment del nombre de xips descartats. Aquests efectes s'han superat parcialment amb la introducció de la tecnologia FinFET que ha resolt el problema de la variabilitat causada per les fluctuacions de dopants aleatòries. No obstant això, en els propers deu anys, l'ample del canal es preveu que es reduirà a 10nm, on la font de la variabilitat generada per les rugositats de les línies de material dominarà, i els seu efecte en les variacions de voltatge llindar augmentarà. Les memòries encastades amb les seves cel·les com la unitat bàsica de construcció són les més propenses a sofrir aquests efectes a causa de les seves dimensions més petites. A causa d'això, cal dissenyar les memòries amb una especial cura per tal de fer possible l'escalat de la tecnologia. Aquesta tesi explora la tecnologia de FinFETs de 10nm i els problemes existents en el disseny de memòries amb aquesta tecnologia. A més a més, presentem noves tècniques originals sobre diferents nivells d'abstracció del disseny per a la mitigació dels efectes les variacions tan de procés com ambientals. En primer lloc, presentem un mètode original per a la simulació de la variabilitat de Tri-Gate FinFETs usant entorn de simulació HSPICE convencional i models de tecnologia BSIMCMG. Després, es realitza la caracterització completa dels circuits de cel·les SRAM tradicionals (6T i 8T) conjuntament amb l'ús de Gate-independent FinFETs per augmentar l'estabilitat de la cèl·lula

Function Implementation in a Multi-Gate Junctionless FET Structure

Title from PDF of title page, viewed September 18, 2023Dissertation advisor: Mostafizur RahmanVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 95-117)Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Department of Physics and Astronomy. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2023This dissertation explores designing and implementing a multi-gate junctionless field-effect transistor (JLFET) structure and its potential applications beyond conventional devices. The JLFET is a promising alternative to conventional transistors due to its simplified fabrication process and improved electrical characteristics. However, previous research has focused primarily on the device's performance at the individual transistor level, neglecting its potential for implementing complex functions. This dissertation fills this research gap by investigating the function implementation capabilities of the JLFET structure and proposing novel circuit designs based on this technology. The first part of this dissertation presents a comprehensive review of the existing literature on JLFETs, including their fabrication techniques, operating principles, and performance metrics. It highlights the advantages of JLFETs over traditional metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and discusses the challenges associated with their implementation. Additionally, the review explores the limitations of conventional transistor technologies, emphasizing the need for exploring alternative device architectures. Building upon the theoretical foundation, the dissertation presents a detailed analysis of the multi-gate JLFET structure and its potential for realizing advanced functions. The study explores the impact of different design parameters, such as channel length, gate oxide thickness, and doping profiles, on the device performance. It investigates the trade-offs between power consumption, speed, and noise immunity, and proposes design guidelines for optimizing the function implementation capabilities of the JLFET. To demonstrate the practical applicability of the JLFET structure, this dissertation introduces several novel circuit designs based on this technology. These designs leverage the unique characteristics of the JLFET, such as its steep subthreshold slope and improved on/off current ratio, to implement complex functions efficiently. The proposed circuits include arithmetic units, memory cells, and digital logic gates. Detailed simulations and analyses are conducted to evaluate their performance, power consumption, and scalability. Furthermore, this dissertation explores the potential of the JLFET structure for emerging technologies, such as neuromorphic computing and bioelectronics. It investigates how the JLFET can be employed to realize energy-efficient and biocompatible devices for applications in artificial intelligence and biomedical engineering. The study investigates the compatibility of the JLFET with various materials and substrates, as well as its integration with other functional components. In conclusion, this dissertation contributes to the field of nanoelectronics by providing a comprehensive investigation into the function implementation capabilities of the multi-gate JLFET structure. It highlights the potential of this device beyond its individual transistor performance and proposes novel circuit designs based on this technology. The findings of this research pave the way for the development of advanced electronic systems that are more energy-efficient, faster, and compatible with emerging applications in diverse fields.Introduction -- Literature review -- Crosstalk principle -- Experiment of crosstalk -- Device architecture -- Simulation & results -- Conclusio

MANAGING AND LEVERAGING VARIATIONS AND NOISE IN NANOMETER CMOS

Advanced CMOS technologies have enabled high density designs at the cost of complex fabrication process. Variation in oxide thickness and Random Dopant Fluctuation (RDF) lead to variation in transistor threshold voltage Vth. Current photo-lithography process used for printing decreasing critical dimensions result in variation in transistor channel length and width. A related challenge in nanometer CMOS is that of on-chip random noise. With decreasing threshold voltage and operating voltage; and increasing operating temperature, CMOS devices are more sensitive to random on-chip noise in advanced technologies. In this thesis, we explore novel circuit techniques to manage the impact of process variation in nanometer CMOS technologies. We also analyze the impact of on-chip noise on CMOS circuits and propose techniques to leverage or manage impact of noise based on the application. True Random Number Generator (TRNG) is an interesting cryptographic primitive that leverages on-chip noise to generate random bits; however, it is highly sensitive to process variation. We explore novel metastability circuits to alleviate the impact of variations and at the same time leverage on-chip noise sources like Random Thermal Noise and Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) to generate high quality random bits. We develop stochastic models for metastability based TRNG circuits to analyze the impact of variation and noise. The stochastic models are used to analyze and compare low power, energy efficient and lightweight post-processing techniques targeted to low power applications like System on Chip (SoC) and RFID. We also propose variation aware circuit calibration techniques to increase reliability. We extended this technique to a more generic application of designing Post-Si Tunable (PST) clock buffers to increase parametric yield in the presence of process variation. Apart from one time variation due to fabrication process, transistors undergo constant change in threshold voltage due to aging/wear-out effects and RTN. Process variation affects conventional sensors and introduces inaccuracies during measurement. We present a lightweight wear-out sensor that is tolerant to process variation and provides a fine grained wear-out sensing. A similar circuit is designed to sense fluctuation in transistor threshold voltage due to RTN. Although thermal noise and RTN are leveraged in applications like TRNG, they affect the stability of sensitive circuits like Static Random Access Memory (SRAM). We analyze the impact of on-chip noise on Bit Error Rate (BER) and post-Si test coverage of SRAM cells

Double-gate single electron transistor : modeling, design & evaluation of logic architectures

Dans les années à venir, l'industrie de la microélectronique doit développer de nouvelles filières technologiques qui pourront devenir des successeurs ou des compléments de la technologie CMOS ultime. Parmi ces technologies émergentes relevant du domaine « Beyond CMOS », ce travail de recherche porte sur les transistors mono-électroniques (SET) dont le fonctionnement est basé sur la quantification de la charge électrique, le transport quantique et la répulsion Coulombienne. Les SETs doivent être étudiés à trois niveaux : composants, circuits et système. Ces nouveaux composants, utilisent à leur profit le phénomène dit de blocage de Coulomb permettant le transit des électrons de manière séquentielle, afin de contrôler très précisément le courant véhiculé. En effet, l'émergence du caractère granulaire de la charge électrique dans le transport des électrons par effet tunnel, permet d'envisager la réalisation de remplaçants potentiels des transistors ou de cellules mémoire à haute densité d'intégration, basse consommation. L'objectif principal de ce travail de thèse est d'explorer et d'évaluer le potentiel des transistors mono-électroniques double-grille métalliques (DG-SETs) pour les circuits logiques numériques. De ce fait, les travaux de recherches proposés sont divisés en trois parties : i) le développement des outils de simulation et tout particulièrement un modèle analytique de DG-SET ; ii) la conception de circuits numériques à base de DG-SETs dans une approche « cellules standards » ; et iii) l'exploration d'architectures logiques versatiles à base de DG-SETs en exploitant la double-grille du dispositif. Un modèle analytique pour les DG-SETs métalliques fonctionnant à température ambiante et au-delà est présenté. Ce modèle est basé sur des paramètres physiques et géométriques et implémenté en langage Verilog-A. Il est utilisable pour la conception de circuits analogiques ou numériques hybrides SET-CMOS. A l'aide de cet outil, nous avons conçu, simulé et évalué les performances de circuits logiques à base de DG-SETs afin de mettre en avant leur utilisation dans les futurs circuits ULSI. Une bibliothèque de cellules logiques, à base de DG-SETs, fonctionnant à haute température est présentée. Des résultats remarquables ont été atteints notamment en termes de consommation d'énergie. De plus, des architectures logiques telles que les blocs élémentaires pour le calcul (ALU, SRAM, etc.) ont été conçues entièrement à base de DG-SETs. La flexibilité offerte par la seconde grille du DG-SET a permis de concevoir une nouvelle famille de circuits logiques flexibles à base de portes de transmission. Une réduction du nombre de transistors par fonction et de consommation a été atteinte. Enfin, des analyses Monte-Carlo sont abordées afin de déterminer la robustesse des circuits logiques conçus à l'égard des dispersions technologiques

An Ultra-Low-Energy, Variation-Tolerant FPGA Architecture Using Component-Specific Mapping

As feature sizes scale toward atomic limits, parameter variation continues to increase, leading to increased margins in both delay and energy. Parameter variation both slows down devices and causes devices to fail. For applications that require high performance, the possibility of very slow devices on critical paths forces designers to reduce clock speed in order to meet timing. For an important and emerging class of applications that target energy-minimal operation at the cost of delay, the impact of variation-induced defects at very low voltages mandates the sizing up of transistors and operation at higher voltages to maintain functionality. With post-fabrication configurability, FPGAs have the opportunity to self-measure the impact of variation, determining the speed and functionality of each individual resource. Given that information, a delay-aware router can use slow devices on non-critical paths, fast devices on critical paths, and avoid known defects. By mapping each component individually and customizing designs to a component's unique physical characteristics, we demonstrate that we can eliminate delay margins and reduce energy margins caused by variation. To quantify the potential benefit we might gain from component-specific mapping, we first measure the margins associated with parameter variation, and then focus primarily on the energy benefits of FPGA delay-aware routing over a wide range of predictive technologies (45 nm--12 nm) for the Toronto20 benchmark set. We show that relative to delay-oblivious routing, delay-aware routing without any significant optimizations can reduce minimum energy/operation by 1.72x at 22 nm. We demonstrate how to construct an FPGA architecture specifically tailored to further increase the minimum energy savings of component-specific mapping by using the following techniques: power gating, gate sizing, interconnect sparing, and LUT remapping. With all optimizations considered we show a minimum energy/operation savings of 2.66x at 22 nm, or 1.68--2.95x when considered across 45--12 nm. As there are many challenges to measuring resource delays and mapping per chip, we discuss methods that may make component-specific mapping more practical. We demonstrate that a simpler, defect-aware routing achieves 70% of the energy savings of delay-aware routing. Finally, we show that without variation tolerance, scaling from 16 nm to 12 nm results in a net increase in minimum energy/operation; component-specific mapping, however, can extend minimum energy/operation scaling to 12 nm and possibly beyond.</p

21st Century Nanostructured Materials

Nanostructured materials (NMs) are attracting interest as low-dimensional materials in the high-tech era of the 21st century. Recently, nanomaterials have experienced breakthroughs in synthesis and industrial and biomedical applications. This book presents recent achievements related to NMs such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, plasmonic materials, metal nanowires, metal oxides, nanoparticles, metamaterials, nanofibers, and nanocomposites, along with their physical and chemical aspects. Additionally, the book discusses the potential uses of these nanomaterials in photodetectors, transistors, quantum technology, chemical sensors, energy storage, silk fibroin, composites, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and sustainable agriculture and environmental applications

Fault-tolerant satellite computing with modern semiconductors

Miniaturized satellites enable a variety space missions which were in the past infeasible, impractical or uneconomical with traditionally-designed heavier spacecraft. Especially CubeSats can be launched and manufactured rapidly at low cost from commercial components, even in academic environments. However, due to their low reliability and brief lifetime, they are usually not considered suitable for life- and safety-critical services, complex multi-phased solar-system-exploration missions, and missions with a longer duration. Commercial electronics are key to satellite miniaturization, but also responsible for their low reliability: Until 2019, there existed no reliable or fault-tolerant computer architectures suitable for very small satellites. To overcome this deficit, a novel on-board-computer architecture is described in this thesis.Robustness is assured without resorting to radiation hardening, but through software measures implemented within a robust-by-design multiprocessor-system-on-chip. This fault-tolerant architecture is component-wise simple and can dynamically adapt to changing performance requirements throughout a mission. It can support graceful aging by exploiting FPGA-reconfiguration and mixed-criticality.  Experimentally, we achieve 1.94W power consumption at 300Mhz with a Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale+ proof-of-concept, which is well within the powerbudget range of current 2U CubeSats. To our knowledge, this is the first COTS-based, reproducible on-board-computer architecture that can offer strong fault coverage even for small CubeSats.European Space AgencyComputer Systems, Imagery and Medi

Computational models of object motion detectors accelerated using FPGA technology

The detection of moving objects is a trivial task when performed by vertebrate retinas, yet a complex computer vision task. This PhD research programme has made three key contributions, namely: 1) a multi-hierarchical spiking neural network (MHSNN) architecture for detecting horizontal and vertical movements, 2) a Hybrid Sensitive Motion Detector (HSMD) algorithm for detecting object motion and 3) the Neuromorphic Hybrid Sensitive Motion Detector (NeuroHSMD) , a real-time neuromorphic implementation of the HSMD algorithm. The MHSNN is a customised 4 layers Spiking Neural Network (SNN) architecture designed to reflect the basic connectivity, similar to canonical behaviours found in the majority of vertebrate retinas (including human retinas). The architecture, was trained using images from a custom dataset generated in laboratory settings. Simulation results revealed that each cell model is sensitive to vertical and horizontal movements, with a detection error of 6.75% contrasted against the teaching signals (expected output signals) used to train the MHSNN. The experimental evaluation of the methodology shows that the MH SNN was not scalable because of the overall number of neurons and synapses which lead to the development of the HSMD. The HSMD algorithm enhanced an existing Dynamic Background subtraction (DBS) algorithm using a customised 3-layer SNN. The customised 3-layer SNN was used to stabilise the foreground information of moving objects in the scene, which improves the object motion detection. The algorithm was compared against existing background subtraction approaches, available on the Open Computer Vision (OpenCV) library, specifically on the 2012 Change Detection (CDnet2012) and the 2014 Change Detection (CDnet2014) benchmark datasets. The accuracy results show that the HSMD was ranked overall first and performed better than all the other benchmarked algorithms on four of the categories, across all eight test metrics. Furthermore, the HSMD is the first to use an SNN to enhance the existing dynamic background subtraction algorithm without a substantial degradation of the frame rate, being capable of processing images 720 × 480 at 13.82 Frames Per Second (fps) (CDnet2014) and 720 × 480 at 13.92 fps (CDnet2012) on a High Performance computer (96 cores and 756 GB of RAM). Although the HSMD analysis shows good Percentage of Correct Classifications (PCC) on the CDnet2012 and CDnet2014, it was identified that the 3-layer customised SNN was the bottleneck, in terms of speed, and could be improved using dedicated hardware. The NeuroHSMD is thus an adaptation of the HSMD algorithm whereby the SNN component has been fully implemented on dedicated hardware [Terasic DE10-pro Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board]. Open Computer Language (OpenCL) was used to simplify the FPGA design flow and allow the code portability to other devices such as FPGA and Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). The NeuroHSMD was also tested against the CDnet2012 and CDnet2014 datasets with an acceleration of 82% over the HSMD algorithm, being capable of processing 720 × 480 images at 28.06 fps (CDnet2012) and 28.71 fps (CDnet2014)

Proceedings of the 21st Conference on Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design – FMCAD 2021

The Conference on Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design (FMCAD) is an annual conference on the theory and applications of formal methods in hardware and system verification. FMCAD provides a leading forum to researchers in academia and industry for presenting and discussing groundbreaking methods, technologies, theoretical results, and tools for reasoning formally about computing systems. FMCAD covers formal aspects of computer-aided system design including verification, specification, synthesis, and testing