Design andImplementation of a Module Generator for Low Power Multipliers

Abstract: Multiplication is an important part of real-time system applications. Various hardware parallel multipliers used in such applications have been proposed. However, when the operand sizes of the multipliers and the process technology need to be changed, the existing multipliers have to be redesigned. From the point of library cell reuse, this master thesis work aims at developing a module generator for parallel multipliers with the help of software programs. This generator can be used to create the gate-level schematic for fixed point two's complement number multipliers. Based on the generated schematic, the entire multiplier can be implemented by small manual intervention. This feature can reduce the time of chip design. The design phases consist of the logic, circuit and physical designs. The logic design includes gate-level schematic generation with C and SKILL programs and structural VHDL-code descriptions as well as validation. The circuit and physical design are custom in Cadence and the routing uses automatic place and route tools. To demonstrate the design method, an 18 by 18-bit modified Booth recoded multiplier was implemented in 0.18 µm CMOS process with a supply voltage of 1.2 V and simulated using simulator (Spectre). The number of integrated transistors is 13000 and the active area is 85000 µm2. The postlayout simulation shows the critical path with a delay of 17 ns.