Qualcomm Incorporated

Carl Christopher Hanke

Yeshwant Nagaraj Kolla

Chong Ding

Douglas Bruce White

Stephen Douglas Weitzel

Richard LaBarbera

Current-starving in tunable-length delay (TLD) circuits in adaptive clock distribution (ACD) systems for compensating voltage droops in clocked integrated circuits (ICs) is disclosed. Voltage droops slow propagation of signals in clocked circuits. However, clock delay circuits in a TLD circuit increase a clock period by increasing a clock delay in response to a voltage droop. In large power distribution networks (PDN), impedance can delay and reduce the magnitude of voltage droops experienced at the TLD circuit. If the voltage droop at the TLD circuit is smaller than at the clocked circuit, then the clock period isn't stretched enough to compensate the slowed clocked circuit. A current-starved TLD circuit starves the clock delay circuits of current in response to a voltage droop indication, which further increases the clock signal delay, and further stretches the clock period to overcome a larger voltage droop in clocked circuits in other areas of the IC.

Current-starving in tunable-length delay (TLD) circuits employable in adaptive clock distribution (ACD) systems for compensating supply voltage droops in integrated circuits (ICs)

According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, a semiconductor die includes a decoupling capacitor between a first interconnect metal layer and a second interconnect metal layer of the die, a first supply rail formed from the second interconnect metal layer, and a resistive metal path coupled between the decoupling capacitor and the first supply rail. The decoupling capacitor may be a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor. In some embodiments, the resistive metal path includes a plurality of elongated segments, and one or more connecting segments, wherein each of the one or more connecting segments electrically couples a respective pair of the plurality of elongated segments. In some embodiments, the resistive metal path includes multiple vias coupled in series.

Growing community of inventors

Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America

Carl Christopher Hanke