Introduction to VLSI Design

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Example: CMOS Inverter Layout

Drawing the N-Well


In this process, the silicon substrate is originally doped with p-type impurities. NMOS transistors can be realized on this p-type substrate simply by creating n-type diffusion areas. For the PMOS transistors however a different approach must be taken: A larger n-type region (n-well) must be created, which acts like a substrate for the PMOS transistors.

From the process point of view, the n-well is one of the first structures to be formed on the surface during fabrication. Here we chose to draw the n-well after almost everything else is finished. Note that the drawing sequence of different layers in a mask layout is completely arbitrary, it does not have to follow the actual fabrication sequence.

1. Select the nwell layer from the LSW

Layout step

2. Draw a large n-well rectangle extending over the P-Diffusion

Layout step

The n-well must extend over the PMOS active area by a large margin, at least 1.8u (6 lambda)



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Last Updated by Ilhan Hatirnaz on 11/7/1998