Accurate Power Measurement Methodology For VLSI Circuits Using CAD Tools

Ajay.G Mtech Student BNMIT,Bangalore

Ramya Rajan Mtech Student BNMIT,Bangalore

Dr.Veena S Chakravarthi, Member IEEE,Professor Department of Electronics & Communication BNMIT,Bangalore

Agenda
Introduction Power Power Measurement accuracy Power Analysis Power measurement using CAD tools Power measured using Result Browser Theoretical Power Estimation Which is Accurate?! Comparison between the 3 methods Conclusion
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Introduction
Power plays a critical role in submicron VLSI design The design has to meet the power bugdet. EDA tools are used to estimate the power of a design. The accuracy of Power analysis depends on the type of algorithms that the power analysis tool uses The proposed method discusses a technique to measure the Power more accurately.
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Power
Power dissipation can be categorized into
Static Power dissipation Dynamic Power dissipation

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Static power dissipation

The static power dissipates when the inputs are static (either logic 0 or 1) The static power equation is P(static) = Ids(static) Vds(static) ---(1) where for saturation condition
Ids(static)=0Cox ((VGS

Vth)VDS VDS2/2 )

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Dynamic Power dissipation

Dynamic power dissipation occurs due to the switching of the input signals Dynamic power is given by the equation P(dynamic) = Ctotal VDD 2 f2
where = switching activity factor VDD =Supply voltage Ctotal = Total capacitance f = frequency of operation
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Power Measurement accuracy

In the nanoscale design era the design must be characterised with greatest accuracy Accuracy of a power analysis depends on the algorithm used by the tool Accuracy plays a significant role where the power constraints are critical In IP based design flow, power is a major deciding factor and hence need to be accurate
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Power Analysis
Power Analysis can be done in three ways
Approach 1:Theoretical computations Approach 2:Using Annotation in CAD tools Approach 3: Using Result browser addon

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Theoretical Power Estimation

In this approach the static current is calculated by
Ids(static)=0Cox ((VGS Vth)VDS VDS2/2 )

And static power is computed as P(static) = Ids(static) Vds(static) <image2>

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Power measurement using CAD tools

Apply static inputs to the circuit Perform simulation using Cadence Spectre Annotate the DC conditions Note the total static current (Is) Calculate static power using the equation P(static) = IS VDS

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Power measured using Result Browser

Apply static inputs to the circuit Opt to save all the results Perform simulation using Cadence Spectre Open Result browser add-on Browse to the power option and note down the power <image1>

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Which is Accurate?!
It can be observed that there is an error ranging from -9% to 14.18% in power estimated using Annotaions. Where as it is observed that the power estimate obtained by Result browser is more accurate with error ranging from -0.3% to 0.99% The succeding slides will depict the error in power in relation to theoretical computations
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Comparison between the 3 methods

Power given by annotating the static current<image3> Power obtained by Result browser<image4> Accuracy

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Conclusion
An error in the range of -9% to 14.8%is observed between the power measurements by CAD tools and theoretical computations An alternative power measurement method is to use the Result browser add-on provided by the vendor and thereby obtain accurate power estimate
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