Hierarchical simulation of substrate coupling in mixed-signal ICs considering the power supply network

This paper presents a novel substrate coupling simulation tool that is well suited to floorplanning of large mixed-signal IC designs. The IC layout may consist of several subcircuits, hence a hierarchical design flow, which is usually used for IC circuit design and layout, is supported Coupling data modelling the substrate inside subcircuits are precalculated and subsequently used during floorplanning leading to shorter simulation time. In addition, the impedance model of the power grid is considered as well making it possible to provide estimation results of substrate coupling quickly after only one simulation step. The approach is verified by experimental results in 0.13 mum CMOS and 0.25 mum BiCMOS technologies.