Measurements of digital signal delay variation due to dynamic power supply noise

On-chip 100-ps/100-mu V waveform accurate measurements on signal transition in a large-scale digital circuits clearly demonstrate the correlation of dynamic delay variation with power supply noise waveforms. An approximately linear dependence of delay increase with drop height holds under the existence of static IR drop, however, the coefficient of delay increase is strongly influenced by a dynamic power supply noise waveform. Another cause of delay variation is found as a distortion of signal waveforms during logic transition by dynamic power supply noise, where the process is sensitive not only to a noise waveform but also to a relative time difference among victim and aggressor pairs, which can be generally found in a design with multiple clock domains.