IMPROVED CONTROL SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION FOR VERY WIDE VLSI DATA BUSES

A new technique for distributing electronic signals by way of a conduc ting path across large spatial distances with minimal temporal dispers ion is presented. It provides for the delivery of a common signal to a ny number of different receivers located along the signal path, wit ne ar zero skew and little degradation of the signal's rise/fall transiti on times. The method involves the placement of an active routing struc ture in parallel with, and appropriately strapped to, a conventional p assive conductor. The concept is demonstrated in the paper, within the context of VLSI design, by a solution to the problem of distributing an on-chip control signal to the many lines of a physically very wide data bus.