Skywater Custom Multiplexer Cells

Background

Traditionally, larger multiplexers are built using trees of smaller multiplexers as illustrated below:

Traditional Multiplexer Tree

Multiplexers trees lead to large power and timing constraints that limit FPGA performance. FPGA fabrics use complementary pass gate logic (CPL) to replace multiplexer trees with single level inverted transmission gate derived multiplexers, as illustrated below:

Single Level FPGA Multiplexer

Single level multiplexers are controlled through configuration SRAM cells which enable high impedance connections throughout the multiplexer hierarchy, thereby removing the need for hierarchical designs of multiplexers. Therefore, the CPL multiplexers enable increased performance and reduced power consumption throughout FPGA fabrics. Standard cells required for CPL multiplexers are not commonly included in PDKs, thereby requiring the need for custom cell creation to enable FPGA multiplexer hierarchies. The remainder of this document is dedicated to the architecture and performance evaluation of our sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux2_1/sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux3_1 custom cells generated using the Skywater 130nm PDK. A comparison is achieved by generating 4-to-1 multiplexer and 6-to-1 multiplexers made from our cells and standard cells provided within the Skywater 130nm PDK.

SKY130_UUOPENFPGA_CC_HD_INVMUX2_1

  • Usage: 2-Input Transmission Gate Multiplexer with Unity Drive Strength Inverter Input
    -Pins:
    • Q1/Q2 - Inverter Input

    • S0/S1 - NMOS Select Input

    • S0B/S1B - PMOS Select Input

  • Schematic:

Sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux2_1 Schematic
  • Layout:

Sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux2_1 Layout
  • Comparison: To demonstrate the performance gains using CPL multiplexers, we built a 4-1 single level multiplexer using our custom sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux2_1 cell along with a 4-to-1 multiplexer using the sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux2_1 as the root cell of the multiplexer tree.

The sky130_fd_sc_hd_mux2_1 multiplexer is built using a static CMOS structure with a single select input, whereas our cell uses a fractured select hierarchy. To perform the comparisons we have tabulated values in regards to power, area, and timing for the 4-to-1 multiplexer tree using Cadence ADE XL.

  • Power:
    • sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux2_1: 2.37 μW

    • sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux2_1: 3.03 μW

Our custom multiplexer provides a 22% reduction in power consumption.

  • Area:
    • sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux2_1: 33.78 μA2

    • sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux2_1: 33.78 μA2

Our multiplexer implementation requires equal area neglecting interconnect overhead.

  • Timing:
    • sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux2_1: 211.1 ps

    • sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux2_1: 304.3 ps

Our custom multiplexer provides over a 31% reduction in propagation delay.

SKY130_UUOPENFPGA_CC_HD_INVMUX2_1 Cell Characterization

SKY130_UUOPENFPGA_CC_HD_INVMUX3_1

  • Usage: 3-Input Transmission Gate Multiplexer with Unity Drive Strength Inverter Input
    • Pins:
      • Q2/Q3 - Inverted Input

      • S0/S1/S2 - NMOS Select Input

      • S0B/S1B/S2B - PMOS Select Input

  • Schematic:

Sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux3_1 Schematic
  • Layout:

Sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux3_1 Layout
  • Comparison: To demonstrate the performance gains using CPL multiplexers, we built a 6-1 single level multiplexer using our custom sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux3_1 cell along with a 6-to-1 multiplexer using the sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux4/2_1 as the root cells of the multiplexer tree.

To perform the comparisons we have tabulated values in regards to power, area, and timing for the 4-to-1 multiplexer tree using Cadence ADE XL.

  • Power:
    • sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux3_1: 2.96 μW

    • sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux2_1: 3.31 μW

Our custom multiplexer provides a 10.5% reduction in power consumption.

  • Area:
    • sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux3_1: 61.31 μA2

    • sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux2_1: 48.80 μA2

The Skywater multiplexer provides a 20% reduction in area.

  • Timing:
    • sky130_uuopenfpga_cc_hd_invmux3_1: 272.6 ps

    • sky130_fd_sc_hd__mux2_1: 374.2 ps

Our custom multiplexer provides over a 27% reduction in propagation delay.

SKY130_UUOPENFPGA_CC_HD_INVMUX3_1 Cell Characterization