Impact of technology scaling on metastability performance of CMOS synchronizing latches

M.S. Baghini, M.P. Desai
Proceedings of ASP-DAC/VLSI Design 2002. 7th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference and 15h International Conference on VLSI Design  
In this paper, we use circuit simulations to characterize the effects of technology scaling on the metastability parameters of CMOS latches used as synchronizers. We perform this characterization by obtaining a synchronization error probability curve from a histogram of the latch delay. The main metastability parameters of CMOS latches are τ m and T w . τ m is the exponential time constant of the rate of decay of metastability and T w is effective size of metastability window at a normal
more » ... tion delay. Both parameters can be extracted from a histogram of the latch delay. This paper also explains a way to calibrate simulator for enough accuracy. Our simulations indicate that τ m scales better than the technology scale factor. T w also scales down but its factor cannot be well estimated as that of τ m . This is because T w is a complex function of signal and clock edge rate and logic threshold level.
doi:10.1109/aspdac.2002.994941 dblp:conf/vlsid/BaghiniD02 fatcat:zicexonoanbfdmcgog6f2smfr4