Contemporary On-chip System Modeling using FDTD in Low Power Regime

Analytical modeling and simulative investigation are the driving thrust for the performance analysis of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits and systems. Contemporary and accurate analytical models are essential for comprehensively understanding the circuit behavior and development of new models. In the present work, motivationally subthreshold region of operation is investigated for on-chip system comprising of driver-interconnect-load using advanced numerical method based finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique for the first time. Integrated circuits operating in subthreshold region are of preeminent significance for several highly demanding portable e-gadgets in low power regime and consequently investigated in the present paper. The driver current under subthreshold region are defined by exponential current model. Practical CMOS gate has been incorporated for the accurate modeling of driver gate. Technology node considered is 22nm. It has been investigated that the proposed analytical model for subthreshold region of operation using FDTD technique is highly accurate with respect to SPICE simulation results.