High performance, energy efficient logic style has always been a popular research topic in the field of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits because of the continuous demands of ever increasing circuit operating frequency. The invention of the dynamic logic in the 80s is one of the answers to this request as it allows designers to implement high performance circuit block, i.e., arithmetic logic unit (ALU), at an operating frequency that traditional static and pass transistor CMOS logic styles are difficult to achieve. However, the performance enhancement comes with several costs, including reduced noise margin,charge-sharing noise, and higher power dissipation due to higher data activity. Furthermore, dynamic logic has gradually lost its performance advantage over static logic due to the increased self-loading ratio in deep-submicron technology (65nm and below) because of the additional NMOS CLK footer transistor. Because of dynamic logic's limitations and diminished speed reward, a slowly rising need has emerged in the past decade to explore new logic style that goes beyond dynamic logic. In this thesis a constant delay (CD) logic style is proposed. The constant delay characteristic of this logic style regardless of the logic expression makes it suitable in implementing complicated logic expression such as addition. Moreover, CD logic exhibits a unique characteristic where the output is pre-evaluated before the inputs from the preceding stage is ready. This feature enables performance advantage over static and dynamic logic styles in a single cycle, multi-stage circuit block. Several design considerations including appropriate timing window width adjustment to reduce power consumption and maintain sufficient noise margin to ensure robust operations are discussed and analyzed. Using 65nm general purpose CMOS technology, the proposed logic demonstrates an average speed up of 94% and 56% over static and dynamic logic respectively in five different logic expressions. Post layout simulation results of 8-bit ripple carry adders conclude that CD-based design is 39% and 23% faster than the static and dynamic-based adders respectively. For ultra-high speed applications, CD-based design exhibits improved energy, power-delay product, and energy-delay product efficiency compared to static and dynamic counterparts.

High performance, energy efficient logic style has always been a popular research topic in the field of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits because of the continuous demands of ever increasing circuit operating frequency. The invention of the dynamic logic in the 80s is one of the answers to this request as it allows designers to implement high performance circuit block, i.e., arithmetic logic unit (ALU), at an operating frequency that traditional static and pass transistor CMOS logic styles are difficult to achieve. However, the performance enhancement comes with several costs, including reduced noise margin,charge-sharing noise, and higher power dissipation due to higher data activity. Furthermore, dynamic logic has gradually lost its performance advantage over static logic due to the increased self-loading ratio in deep-submicron technology (65nm and below) because of the additional NMOS CLK footer transistor. Because of dynamic logic's limitations and diminished speed reward, a slowly rising need has emerged in the past decade to explore new logic style that goes beyond dynamic logic. In this thesis a constant delay (CD) logic style is proposed. The constant delay characteristic of this logic style regardless of the logic expression makes it suitable in implementing complicated logic expression such as addition. Moreover, CD logic exhibits a unique characteristic where the output is pre-evaluated before the inputs from the preceding stage is ready. This feature enables performance advantage over static and dynamic logic styles in a single cycle, multi-stage circuit block. Several design considerations including appropriate timing window width adjustment to reduce power consumption and maintain sufficient noise margin to ensure robust operations are discussed and analyzed. Using 65nm general purpose CMOS technology, the proposed logic demonstrates an average speed up of 94% and 56% over static and dynamic logic respectively in five different logic expressions. Post layout simulation results of 8-bit ripple carry adders conclude that CD-based design is 39% and 23% faster than the static and dynamic-based adders respectively. For ultra-high speed applications, CD-based design exhibits improved energy, power-delay product, and energy-delay product efficiency compared to static and dynamic counterparts.

Em portas lógicas CMOS, tanto o atraso de propagação como a curva de saída estão fortemente ligados ao número de dispositivos PMOS e NMOS conectados em série nas redes de carga e descarga, respectivamente. O estilo lógico ‘standard CMOS’ é, em geral, otimizado para um dos planos, apresentando então o arranjo complementar no plano oposto. Consequentemente, o número mínimo de transistores em série não é necessariamente alcançado. Neste trabalho, apresenta-se um método para encontrar o menor número de chaves (transistores) em série necessários para se implementar portas lógicas complexas CMOS. Um novo estilo lógico CMOS, derivado de tal método, é então proposto e comparado ao estilo CMOS convencional através do uso de uma ferramenta de caracterização comercial. A caracterização elétrica de conjuntos de funções de 3 a 6 entradas foi realizada para avaliar o novo método, apresentando significativos ganhos em velocidade, sem perdas em dissipação de potência ou em área. / Both the propagation delay and the output slope in CMOS gates are strongly related to the number of stacked PMOS and NMOS devices in the pull-up and pull-down networks, respectively. The standard CMOS logic style is usually optimized targeting one logic plane, presenting then the complemented topology in the other one. As a consequence, the minimum number of stacked transistors is not necessarily achieved. In this work, a method to find the lower bound of stacked switches (transistors) in CMOS complex gates is presented. A novel CMOS logic style, derived from such method, is then proposed and compared to conventional CMOS style through a commercial cell characterizer. Electrical characterization of sets of 3- to 6-input functions was done in order to evaluate the new method. Significant gains in propagation delay were obtained without penalty in power dissipation or area.

Em portas lógicas CMOS, tanto o atraso de propagação como a curva de saída estão fortemente ligados ao número de dispositivos PMOS e NMOS conectados em série nas redes de carga e descarga, respectivamente. O estilo lógico ‘standard CMOS’ é, em geral, otimizado para um dos planos, apresentando então o arranjo complementar no plano oposto. Consequentemente, o número mínimo de transistores em série não é necessariamente alcançado. Neste trabalho, apresenta-se um método para encontrar o menor número de chaves (transistores) em série necessários para se implementar portas lógicas complexas CMOS. Um novo estilo lógico CMOS, derivado de tal método, é então proposto e comparado ao estilo CMOS convencional através do uso de uma ferramenta de caracterização comercial. A caracterização elétrica de conjuntos de funções de 3 a 6 entradas foi realizada para avaliar o novo método, apresentando significativos ganhos em velocidade, sem perdas em dissipação de potência ou em área. / Both the propagation delay and the output slope in CMOS gates are strongly related to the number of stacked PMOS and NMOS devices in the pull-up and pull-down networks, respectively. The standard CMOS logic style is usually optimized targeting one logic plane, presenting then the complemented topology in the other one. As a consequence, the minimum number of stacked transistors is not necessarily achieved. In this work, a method to find the lower bound of stacked switches (transistors) in CMOS complex gates is presented. A novel CMOS logic style, derived from such method, is then proposed and compared to conventional CMOS style through a commercial cell characterizer. Electrical characterization of sets of 3- to 6-input functions was done in order to evaluate the new method. Significant gains in propagation delay were obtained without penalty in power dissipation or area.

Em portas lógicas CMOS, tanto o atraso de propagação como a curva de saída estão fortemente ligados ao número de dispositivos PMOS e NMOS conectados em série nas redes de carga e descarga, respectivamente. O estilo lógico ‘standard CMOS’ é, em geral, otimizado para um dos planos, apresentando então o arranjo complementar no plano oposto. Consequentemente, o número mínimo de transistores em série não é necessariamente alcançado. Neste trabalho, apresenta-se um método para encontrar o menor número de chaves (transistores) em série necessários para se implementar portas lógicas complexas CMOS. Um novo estilo lógico CMOS, derivado de tal método, é então proposto e comparado ao estilo CMOS convencional através do uso de uma ferramenta de caracterização comercial. A caracterização elétrica de conjuntos de funções de 3 a 6 entradas foi realizada para avaliar o novo método, apresentando significativos ganhos em velocidade, sem perdas em dissipação de potência ou em área. / Both the propagation delay and the output slope in CMOS gates are strongly related to the number of stacked PMOS and NMOS devices in the pull-up and pull-down networks, respectively. The standard CMOS logic style is usually optimized targeting one logic plane, presenting then the complemented topology in the other one. As a consequence, the minimum number of stacked transistors is not necessarily achieved. In this work, a method to find the lower bound of stacked switches (transistors) in CMOS complex gates is presented. A novel CMOS logic style, derived from such method, is then proposed and compared to conventional CMOS style through a commercial cell characterizer. Electrical characterization of sets of 3- to 6-input functions was done in order to evaluate the new method. Significant gains in propagation delay were obtained without penalty in power dissipation or area.