VLSI Interview questions with answers
- Steps involved in designing an optimal padring
Ans:
2. Ensure that the Padring ful-fills the ESD requirement, Identifyh the power-domains, split the domains, Ensure common ground across all the domains.
3. Ensure the padring has ful-filled the SSN(Simultaneous Switching Noise) requirement.
4. Placing Transfer-cell Pads in the cross power-domains, for different height pads, to have rail connectivity.
5. Ensure that the design has sufficient core power-pads.
6. Choose the Drive-strenght of the pads based on the current requirements, timing.
7. Ensure that there is seperate analog ground and power pads.
8. A No-Connection Pad is used to fill out the pad-frame if there is no requirement for I/O's.Extra VDD/GND pads also could be used. Ensure that no Input/output pads are used with un-connected inputs, as they consume power if the inputs float.
9. Ensure that oscillator-pads are used for clock inputs.
10. In-case if the design requirement for source synchronous circuits, make sure that the clock and data pads are of same drive-strength.
11. Breaker-pads are used to break the power-ring, and to isolate the power-structure across the pads.
12. Ensure that the metal-wire connected to the pin can carry sufficient amount of the current, check if more than one metal-layer is necessary to carry the maximum current provided at the pin.
13. In case if required , place pads with capacitance.
- What is metastability and steps to prevent it.
Ans:
Metastability is an unknown state it is neither Zero nor One.Metastability happens for the design systems violating setup or hole time requirements. Setup time is a requirement , that the data has to be stable before the clock-edge and hold time is a requirement , that the data has to be stable after the clock-edge. The potential violation of the setup and hold violation can happen when the data is purely asynchronous and clocked synchronously.
Steps to prevent Metastability.
1. Using proper synchronizers(two-stage or three stage), as soon as the data is coming from the asynchronous domain. Using Synchronizers, recovers from the metastable event.
2. Use synchronizers between cross-clocking domains to reduce the possibility from metastability.
3. Using Faster flip-flops (which has narrower Metastable Window).
12. what is local-skew, global-skew,useful-skew mean?
Local skew : The difference between the clock reaching at the launching flop vs the clock reaching the destination flip-flop of a timing-path.
Global skew : The difference between the earliest reaching flip-flop and latest reaching flip-flop for a same clock-domain.
Useful skew: Useful skew is a concept of delaying the capturing flip-flop clock path, this approach helps in meeting setup requirement with in the launch and capture timing path. But the hold-requirement has to be met for the design.
- what is meant by virtual clock definition and why do i need it?
Ans:
Virtual clock is mainly used to model the I/O timing specification. Based on what clock the output/input pads are passing the data.
- What are the various timing-paths which i should take care in my STA runs?
Ans:
1. Timing path starting from an input-port and ending at the output port(purely combinational path).
2. Timing path starting from an input-port and ending at the register.
3. Timing path starting from an Register and ending at the output-port.
4. Timing path starting from an register and ending at the register.
- What are the various components of Leakage-power?
Ans:
1. sub-threshold leakage,....think of ths answer
- What are the various yield-losses in the design?
Ans:
The yield loss in the design is characterized by
1. Functional yield losses, mainly caused by spot defects , especially (shorts & opens)
2. Parametric yield losses, due to process variations.
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