LSI on-chip optical interconnections are discussed from the viewpoint of a comparison between optical and electrical interconnections. Based on a practical prediction of our optical device development, optical interconnects will have an advantage over electrical interconnects within a chip that has an interconnect length less than about 10 mm at the hp32-22 nm technology node. Fundamental optical devices and components used in interconnections have also been introduced that are small enough to be placed on top of a Si LSI and that can be fabricated using methods compatible with CMOS processes. A SiON waveguide showed a low propagation loss around 0.3 dB/cm at a wavelength of 850 nm, and excellent branching characteristics were achieved for MMI (multimode interference) branch structures. A Si nano-photodiode showed highly enhanced speed and efficiency with a surface plasmon antenna. By combining our Si nano-photonic devices with the advanced TIA-less optical clock distribution circuits, clock distribution above 10 GHz can be achieved with a small footprint on an LSI chip.

We have developed a solid-electrolyte nonvolatile switch (here we refer as NanoBridge) with a low ON resistance and its small size. When we use a NanoBridge to switch elements in a programmable logic device, the chip size (or die cost) can be reduced and performance (speed and power consumption) can be enhanced. Developing this application required solving a couple of problems. First, the switching voltage of the NanoBridge (0.3 V) needed to be larger than the operating voltage of the logic circuit (>1 V). Second, the programming current (>1 mA) needed to be suppressed to avoid large power consumption. We demonstrate how the Nanobridge enhances the switching voltage and reduces the programming current.

Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) designers have two major problems with regard to the production of practical, portable multimedia communication systems. The first is the difficulty of achieving both fast lock time and low jitter operation simultaneously. This can be particularly difficult because the increase in loop stability needed to reduce jitter increases the lock time. The second is the problem caused by circuits operating at low voltage supplies. Low voltage supplies adversely effect the performance of phase-frequency detectors and charge pump circuits, and they can decrease the noise immunity of oscillators. We have developed a hot-standby architecture, which can achieve both fast lock time and low jitter operation simultaneously, and low-voltage circuit techniques, such as a noise-immune adaptive-gain voltage-controlled oscillator, for a fabricated PLL. This PLL is fully integrated onto a 480-µm450-µm die area with 0.18-µm CMOS technology. It can operate from 0.5 V to 1.2 V, and with a lock range from 40 MHz to 170 MHz at 0.5 V. The jitter is less than 200 ps and the lock time is less than 500 ns.

This paper presents a new circuit scheme called a transient sensitive accelerator(TSA) circuit for highly resistive interconnects. The TSA can reduce both delay time and crosstalk voltage. Using the TSA with an interconnect length of 30 mm reduces delay time and crosstalk voltage by 29% and 20%, respectively, A further advantage is that the TSA operates in self-time and thus can be applied to bidirectional signal communication.

Duobinary signaling has been introduced into asymmetric multi-chip communications such as DRAM or display interfaces, which allows a controlled amount of ISI to reduce signaling bandwidth by 2/3. A × 2 oversampled equalization has been developed to realize Duobinary signaling. Symbol-rate clock recovery form Duobinary signal has been developed to reduce power consumption for receivers. A Duobinary transmitter test chip was fabricated with 90-nm CMOS process. A 3.5 dB increase in eye height and a 1.5 times increase in eye width was observed.

An elastic-Vt CMOS circuit is proposed which facilitates both high speed and low power consumption at low supply voltages. This circuit permits fine-grain power control on each multiple circuit block composing a chip, and it is not sensitive to design factors as device-parameter deviations or operating-environment variations. It also does not require any such additional fabrication technology as triple-well structure or multi-threshold voltage. The effectiveness of the circuits design was confirmed in applying it to specially fabricated 16-bit adders and 4-kb SRAMs based on 1. 5-V, 0. 35- µm CMOS technology.

A daisy chain of current-driven transmitters in inductive-coupling complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) links is presented. Transmitter power can be reduced since current is reused by multiple transmitters. Eight transceivers are arranged with a pitch of 20 µm in 0.18 µm CMOS. Transmitter power is reduced by 35% without sacrificing either the data rate (1 Gb/s/ch) or BER (<10-12) by using a 4-transmitter daisy chain. A coding technique for efficient use of daisy chain transmitters is also proposed. With the proposed coding technique, additional power reduction can be achieved.

This paper describes a 1-GHz portable digital delay-locked loop (DLL) with 0.15-µm CMOS technology. There are three factors contributing to jitter in digital DLLs. One is supply-noise induced jitter, another is jitter caused by delay time resolution and phase step in the delay line, and the third is jitter caused by the sensitivity of the phase detector. In order to achieve a low jitter digital DLL, we have developed a master-slave architecture that achieves infinite phase capture ranges and low latency, a delay line that improves the delay time resolution, a phase step suppression technique and a dynamic phase detector with increased sensitivity. These techniques were used to fabricate a digital DLL with improved jitter performance. Measured results showed that the DLL successfully achieves 29-ps peak-to-peak jitter with a quiet supply and 0.2-ps/ mV supply sensitivity.

Dicode partial response signaling system over inductively-coupled channel has been developed to achieve higher data rate than self-resonant frequencies of inductors. The developed system operates at five times higher data rates than conventional systems with the same inductor. A current-mode equalization in the transmitter designed in a 90-nm CMOS successfully reshapes waveforms to obtain dicode signals at the receiver. For a 5-Gb/s signaling through the coupled inductors with a 120-µm diameter and a 120-µm distance, 20-mV eye opening was observed. The power consumption value of the transmitter was 58 mW at the 5-Gb/s operation.

A 4-phase clock generator, which can dynamically change clock frequencies, duty ratios and I/Q balance, is proposed for on-chip timing margin testing. The clock generator macro is integrated into the microprocessor chip of the supercomputer SX-9, which is fabricated with a 65 nm CMOS technology. It demonstrates frequency syntheses of 1.68 GHz to 3 GHz range, an instant frequency change capability for timing margin testing, duty ratio and I/Q balance adjustments of -12.5 ps to 9.4 ps with a 3.125 ps step resolution.