Low threshold voltage transistor displacement in a semiconductor device

A semiconductor integrated circuit comprising:

• a plurality of gate instances;
• circuit paths defined through respective ones of the gate instances;
• wherein a subset of the gate instances are standard threshold voltage variants substituted in the semiconductor integrated circuit based on at least a maximum of a first set of path cycle times and a maximum of a second set of path cycle times for a corresponding low threshold voltage variant;
• wherein the first set of path cycle times are determined for respective ones of at least a subset of a plurality of the circuit paths, the subset corresponding to individual paths of the plurality of the circuit paths, the individual paths including a particular low threshold variant of a gate instance, a timing difference corresponding to at least one of the individual paths of the subset being a slowdown;
• wherein the second set of Path cycle times are determined for respective ones of the subset of the plurality of the circuit paths, the individual paths including a standard threshold variant corresponding to the particular low threshold variant, thereby removing the timing difference from the individual paths;
• wherein the timing differences corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of the circuit paths, an individual timing difference being between an individual path of the plurality of the circuit paths including a low threshold variant of a gate instance and the individual path including a standard threshold variant of the gate instance, the individual Path including at least one low threshold variant of a gate instance.

A computer readable encoding of a semiconductor integrated circuit design, the computer readable encoding comprising:

• one or more design file media encoding representations of a plurality of gate instances;
• and
• one or more design file media encoding representations of circuit paths defined through respective ones of the gate instances,
• wherein a subset of the gate instances are standard threshold voltage variants substituted in the semiconductor integrated circuit based on at least a maximum of a first set of path cycle times and a maximum of a second set of path cycle times for a corresponding low threshold voltage variant;
• wherein the first set of path cycle times are determined for respective ones of at least a subset of a plurality of the circuit paths, the subset corresponding to individual paths of the plurality of the circuit paths, the individual paths including a particular low threshold variant of a gate instance, a timing difference corresponding to at least one of the individual paths of the subset being a slowdown;
• wherein the second set of path cycle times are determined for respective ones of the subset of the plurality of the circuit paths, the individual Paths including a standard threshold variant corresponding to the particular low threshold variant, thereby removing the timing difference from the individual paths;
• wherein the timing differences corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of the circuit paths, an individual timing difference being between an individual path of the plurality of the circuit paths including a low threshold variant of a gate instance and the individual path including a standard threshold variant of the gate instance, the individual path including at least one low threshold variant of a gate instance.

A method of making a computer readable media product that encodes a design file representation of a semiconductor integrated circuit, the method comprising:

• preparing the one or more design files for the semiconductor integrated circuit including at least one low threshold voltage instance and performing timing analysis thereon;
• substituting at least one of the low threshold voltage instances of the semiconductor integrated circuit with a standard threshold voltage instance;
• and
• generating one or more design file outputs that encode representations of the semiconductor integrated circuit, including the substituted standard threshold voltage instances;
• and
• supplying the one or more design file outputs as at least part of the computer readable media product;
• wherein a subset of the rate instances are standard threshold voltage variants substituted in the semiconductor integrated circuit based on at least a maximum of a first set of path cycle times and a maximum of a second set of path cycle times for a corresponding low threshold voltage variant;
• wherein the first set of path cycle times are determined for respective ones of at least a subset of a plurality of paths, the subset corresponding to individual paths of the plurality of paths, the individual paths including a Particular low threshold variant of a Rate instance, a timing difference corresponding to at least one of the individual paths of the subset being a slowdown;
• wherein the second set of path cycle times are determined for respective ones of the subset of the plurality of paths, the individual paths including a standard threshold variant corresponding to the particular low threshold variant, thereby removing the timing difference from the individual paths;
• wherein the timing differences corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of paths, an individual timing difference being between an individual path of the plurality of paths including a low threshold variant of a gate instance and the individual path including a standard threshold variant of the gate instance, the individual path including at least one low threshold variant of a gate instance.

An apparatus comprising:

• means for processing one or more design files for a semiconductor integrated circuit, the one or more design files, encoding representations of a plurality of gate instances and circuit paths;
• means for selecting at least one of the gate instances based on a measurement that indicates a low threshold voltage variant timing penalty;
• and
• means for substituting at least one of the low threshold voltage gate instance representations with respective standard threshold voltage variants thereof;
• wherein the at least one of the low threshold voltage gate instance representations is selected based on at least a maximum of a first set of path cycle times and a maximum of a second set of path cycle times for a corresponding low threshold voltage variant:
• wherein the first set of path cycle times are determined for respective ones of at least a subset of a plurality of paths, the subset corresponding to individual Paths of the plurality of paths, the individual paths including a particular low threshold variant of a gate instance, a timing difference corresponding to at least one of the individual paths of the subset being a slowdown;
• wherein the second set of path cycle times are determined for respective ones of the subset of the plurality of paths, the individual paths including a standard threshold variant corresponding to the particular low threshold variant, thereby removing the timing difference from the path;
• wherein the timing differences corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of paths, an individual timing difference being between an individual path of the plurality of paths including a low threshold variant of a gate instance and the individual path including standard threshold variant of the gate instance, the individual path including at least one low threshold variant of a gate instance.