A macromodel technique for VLSI dynamic simulation by mapping pre-characterized transitions

Abstract

Accurate simulation of digital circuits is an essential part of the design process. High precision models are generally used to confirm logic behavior and estimate power dissipation, which has become an extremely important design parameter. Unfortunately high precision analysis is expensivein computer execution time, and there is always a trade-off between accuracy and speed. This work proposes a new circuit simulation approach by storing a set of pre-characterized transition configurations for each standard library cell in a lookup table. The lookup table contains information about the voltage and the current transient waveform produced by SPICE simulation. The method achieves good accuracy levels for yielding the total or partial current waveform of a circuit in significantly less time compared to SPICE or other commercial tools. © 2008 IEEE.