Efficient Selection and Placement of In-Package Decoupling Capacitors Using Matrix-Based Evolutionary Computation

In the era of advanced nanotechnology where billions of transistors are fabricated in a single chip, high-speed operations are challenging due to packaging related issues. In High-Speed Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) systems, decoupling capacitors are essentially used in power delivery networks to reduce power supply noise and to maintain a low impedance of the power delivery networks. In this paper, the cumulative impedance of a power delivery network is reduced below the target impedance by using state-of-the-art metaheuristic algorithms to choose and place decoupling capacitors optimally. A Matrix-based Evolutionary Computing (MEC) approach is used for efficient usage of metaheuristic algorithms. Two case studies are presented on a practical system to demonstrate the proposed approach. A comparative analysis of the performance of state-of-the-art metaheuristics is presented with the insights of practical implementation. The consistency of results in both the case studies confirms the validity of the proposed appraoch.