Prediction of dynamic current waveform and spectrum in a semiconductor device
US8132137B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 10, 2008 |
| Grant date | Mar 6, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 24, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH05K3/0005
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method for accurately determining the shape of currents in a current spectrum for a circuit design is provided. The method includes determining timing characteristics and power consumption characteristics for the circuit design. In one embodiment, the timing characteristics are provided through a electronic design automation tool. The timing characteristics yield a current pulse time width. In another embodiment, the power consumption characteristics are provided by an EDA tool. The power consumption characteristics yield a current pulse amplitude. The shape of the current pulse is obtained by incrementally processing a power analyzer tool over relatively small time increments over one or more clock cycles while capturing the switching nodes of a simulation of the circuit design for each time increment. In one embodiment, the time increments are one nanosecond or less. From the timing characteristics and the power consumption characteristics a time domain current waveform is constructed, which can be converted to the frequency domain.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.