Multi-Chiplet Clock Delay Compensation for Skew Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
In multi-chip systems, clock signals propagate at varying speeds due to manufacturing and environmental variations, causing misalignments that lead to clock skew, which affects the synchronized operation of cascading logic units and requires a mechanism for compensation.
Innovation Solution
The system employs phase detectors to measure phase measurements indicative of propagation speeds across chiplets, with a microcontroller determining delay offsets to adjust clock signal delays using delay units, ensuring synchronization across the distribution trees.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If physical layer interface is used to drive data between logic units, then data transfer rate is improved, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the physical layer interface from the data path by implementing direct logic unit connections. Data is transferred directly between logic units without passing through physical layer interfaces, eliminating the need for complex physical layer circuitry while maintaining high data transfer rates through synchronized clock distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The clock distribution network serves multiple functions: it provides timing synchronization for direct logic unit connections, enables high-speed data transfer, and replaces the need for physical layer interfaces. This multi-functional approach eliminates redundant circuitry while maintaining performance.
2Speed
If physical layer interface is used to drive data between logic units, then data transfer rate is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes physical layer interfaces from the data path, eliminating their power consumption. Data transfer between logic units occurs directly through the interconnect fabric, powered only by the clock distribution network and logic units themselves, significantly reducing overall power consumption while maintaining high transfer rates.
3Device complexity
If direct connection between logic units is implemented, then device complexity is reduced, but clock synchronization difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the clock distribution into hierarchical levels: a root clock source distributes to multiple clock trees, each serving groups of logic units. Phase detectors are placed at strategic points to measure and compensate for skew. This segmentation makes clock synchronization manageable despite the complexity of direct logic unit connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback through phase detectors that continuously monitor clock skew between logic units. The measured phase differences are fed back to delay elements that adjust clock timing in real-time, automatically compensating for synchronization issues and maintaining precise timing alignment across the direct connection fabric.
4Quantity of substance
If clock signals are distributed across multiple chiplets, then logic unit density is improved, but clock skew increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the multi-chiplet system into multiple independent clock trees, each serving a specific chiplet or group of chiplets. This segmentation allows each clock tree to be optimized for its local region, minimizing skew within each chiplet while the root clock source coordinates across all chiplets, maintaining manufacturing precision despite high logic unit density.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces phase detectors and delay elements as intermediaries in the clock distribution path across chiplets. These intermediaries measure and compensate for timing differences introduced by manufacturing variations and environmental factors, ensuring precise clock signal alignment across multiple chiplets with high logic unit density.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are disclosed for clock delay compensation in a multiple chiplet system. Techniques disclosed include distributing, by a clock generator, a clock signal across distribution trees of respective chiplets; measuring phases, by phase detectors, where each phase measurement is associated with a chiplet of the chiplets and is indicative of a propagation speed of the clock signal through the distribution tree of the chiplet. Then, for each chiplet, techniques are further disclosed that determine, by a microcontroller, based on the phase measurements associated with the chiplet, a delay offset, and that delay, based on the delay offset, the propagation of the clock signal through the distribution tree of the chiplet using a delay unit associated with the chiplet.