Creating A Digital I/O Interface Model

Digital I/O models capture the electrical information common to the IC technology and circuit techniques used to design and build them. A typical digital family will only have a few I/O models. The only difference in the I/O models within a digital family is to account for the different circuits employed at the input or output such as open-collector outputs or Schmitt-trigger inputs. The I/O models provide the information necessary to determine the output strength when devices are wire-ored together, and to create the interface circuits when the digital part is connected to an analog part. This article will describe the steps taken to create an I/O interface for the 74LV-A low voltage logic family at its typical power supply voltage of 3.3V. Power Supply Subcircuit The digital power supply subcircuit defines the default power supply for the logic family when the supply is not specified in a schematic. This subcircuit is called whenever an AtoD or DtoA interface is required. Multiple logic families can use the same power supply subcircuit if it is applicable. For the 74LV-A family, the nominal voltage supply for the VCC pin is 3.3V. The subcircuit below defines the power supply. .subckt DIGIFPWR_3V AGND + optional: DPWR_3V=$G_DPWR_3V DGND_3V=$G_DGND_3V + params: VOLTAGE=3.3 REFERENCE=0 V1 DPWR_3V AGND {VOLTAGE} R1 DPWR_3V AGND 1E9 V2 DGND_3V AGND {REFERENCE} R2 DGND_3V AGND 1E9 R3 AGND 0 1m .ends The subcircuit basically consists of two batteries with a large resistor in parallel with each. The batteries are defined by the VOLTAGE and REFERENCE parameters, which in this case, have been defined as 3.3V and 0V respectively. The optional nodes, DPWR_3V and DGND_3V, define the power and ground node names that will be used throughout the I/O model and in components that reference this I/O model. Digital Input Device (N Device) Model Statement The digital input device is the device within the interface that converts a digital output node to its analog equivalent. It does the conversion by translating the digital states to impedance changes on the analog side. Two resistors (RLO and RHI) are placed in a voltage divider configuration between the power and ground nodes of the digital device. These resistors determine the equivalent analog voltage of the digital output. The model statement for the N device defines the values of the resistors for each digital state, and the switching time between the old resistance and the new resistance when a state change occurs. The model statement for the standard N device in the 74LV-A family is: .model DIN74LV-A dinput ( + s0name="0" s0tsw=3.4n s0rlo=31.9 s0rhi=494.5 ;@30ohms, .2V + s1name="1" s1tsw=3.4n s1rlo=578.2 s1rhi=37.3 ;@35 ohms, 3.1V + s2name="F" s2tsw=3.4n s2rlo=58.1 s2rhi=73.2 ;@32.4 ohms, 1.46V + s3name="R" s3tsw=3.4n s3rlo=58.1 s3rhi=73.2 ;@32.4 ohms, 1.46V + s4name="X" s4tsw=3.4n s4rlo=58.1 s4rhi=73.2 ;@32.4 ohms, 1.46V + s5name="Z" s5tsw=3.4n s5rlo=1Meg s5rhi=1Meg) The N device model statement defines three parameters for each state: the switching time (tsw), the low resistance (rlo), and the high resistance (rhi). The switching time defines the amount of time it takes for the resistors to transition to their new value for the state. The switching times should be close to the typical propagation delay for the family. The main I/O model has parameters that compensate for these switching times, so that the resistance values reach their new value at approximately the same time as the state changes at the output. A 0-R-1 transition will produce a 6.8ns switching time for this model. The resistance values for each state are determined by the V-I curves for the family. For the 0 state, the slope of the VOL vs IOL curve is taken to obtain a resistance (RSL). The RSL resistance is then used to calculate the RLO and RHI resistors in the model statement through the two following equations: VO = (VPWR*RLO)/(RLO + RHI) RSL = (RLO*RHI)/(RLO + RHI) VPWR is the power supply for the family which in this case is 3.3V. VO is the typical low state output voltage at a power supply of 3.3V which is .2V for this family. RSL was determined to be 30 ohms from the VOL vs IOL curve, so the resulting resistances for the 0 state are RLO=31.9 and RHI=494.5. For the 1 state, the same equations are used except that the RSL is determined by the slope of the VOH vs IOH curve, and VO is the typical high state output voltage which is 3.1V for this family. With the RSL resistance measured at 35 ohms, the resistances for the 1 state are calculated at RLO=578.2 and RHI=37.3. For the F, R, and X states, the above equations are also used. These three states will be arbitrarily represented as a midpoint between the 0 and 1 states. The RSL resistance for these states is determined by taking the square root of the product of the RSL resistances determined for the 0 and 1 state as follows: RSL = SQRT(RSL(0) * RSL(1)) The VO voltage is defined as the voltage exactly halfway between the minimum high output voltage and the maximum low output voltage. For the 74LV-A family, the RSL comes out to 32.4 ohms and the output voltage is determined to be 1.46V. These values produce resistances of RLO=58.1 and RHI=73.2. For the Z state, the RHI and RLO parameters have been arbitrarily assigned the value of 1Meg to represent the high impedance of the state, and the switching time is set to the same value as the F, R, and X states. DtoA Interface Subcircuit The DtoA interface subcircuit is the actual component that is placed between a digital output and an analog component internally when an analysis is entered. For the 74LV-A family, the subcircuit is as follows: .subckt DTOA_LV-A D A DPWR_3V DGND_3V + params: CAPACITANCE=0 DRVH=0 DRVL=0 N1 A DGND_3V DPWR_3V DIN74LV-A DGTLNET=D IO_LV-A CLOAD A DGND_3V {CAPACITANCE+.1p} .ends The DtoA subcircuit consists of only two components, an N device, referencing the model statement just created, and a capacitor. The power and ground nodes throughout the subcircuit are given the same name as the power and ground nodes in the power supply subcircuit. The I/O model specification for the N device is defined with the name of the full I/O model, IO_LV-A, that will be created further along in this article. The DRVH and DRVL parameters are the high state and low state impedances used to determine output strength. The CAPACITANCE parameter is used to increase the propagation delay through the device to account for excessive capacitive loading on the node caused by high fan-out. These parameters will be overwritten by the DRVH, DRVL, and OUTLD parameters available in the IO_LV-A model, so they are set to 0 for the subcircuit. The schematic equivalent of the DtoA subcircuit interface appears in the figure below.

Digital Output Device (O Device) Model Statements The digital output device is the component that converts an analog voltage into its equivalent digital state for when an analog node is connected to a digital input. It does the conversion by assigning voltage ranges to the digital states. If the analog input voltage falls within a range, the output will be the corresponding digital state. These voltage ranges are defined in the model statement for the O device. The 74LV-A family will have two O device model statements. One model will contain all the intermediate states such as R, F, and X along with the 0 and 1 states, and the other will be a simplified model that contains only the 0 and 1 states. This is typical of all of the families that are included with Micro-Cap. The model that is actually used in simulation is dependent on the Global Setting DIGIOLVL parameter which specifies which of the four DtoA and AtoD subcircuit interfaces to use. The two O model statements for the 74LV-A family are: .model DO74LV-A_NX doutput ( + s0name="0" s0vlo=-.5 s0vhi=1.65 + s1name="1" s1vlo=1.65 s1vhi=7) .model DO74LV-A doutput ( + s0name="X" s0vlo=.8 s0vhi=2 + s1name="1" s1vlo=2 s1vhi=7 + s2name="F" s2vlo=1.6 s2vhi=2 + s3name="F" s3vlo=.8 s3vhi=1.7 + s4name="X" s4vlo=.8 s4vhi=2 + s5name="0" s5vlo=-.5 s5vhi=.8 + s6name="R" s6vlo=.8 s6vhi=1.7 + s7name="R" s7vlo=1.6 s7vhi=2) To determine which range contains the input voltage level, a progressive search is employed. The search starts at the current state range. If the voltage is outside this range, it tries the next possible range. If it fails on the last specified range, it will wrap around to the first range again. If it fails all of the ranges, it will choose the range with the nearest voltage match. The DO74LV-A model represents the more complex AtoD interface. The 1 state defined on the s1 line uses the high level input voltage as its low voltage and the maximum input voltage as its high voltage. The 0 state defined on the s5 line uses the minimum input voltage as its low voltage and the low level input voltage as its high voltage. The R, F, and X states are defined within the voltage range set by the low level input voltage and the high level input voltage. The order that the states are defined in is also important due to the nature of the progressive search. Typically, the first state defined should be an X (unknown) state. This is the range that the simulation will first test. If the input voltage at that point is between .8V and 2V, it doesn't know whether it should be at a 0 or 1 state and will produce a resulting X state. The next state was chosen to be a 1 state. Following the 1 state is a combination of F (fall), F, and X states. The logic behind this combination is that it forces the analog input to have a fairly smooth transition between the 1 and 0 state. If the input voltage ramps linearly down from 2.5V to .5V, the digital output will go from the 1 state, to the first F state, to the second F state, and then to the 0 state. In the simulation, the user will just see a 1-F-0 transition. If the input analog voltage were to oscillate on the way down such as going from 2.5V to 1.5V back up to 1.8V and then down to .5V, the digital output will go from the 1 state, to the first F state, to the second F state, to the following X state, and then to the 0 state. In the simulation, the user will see a 1-F-X-0 transition. The X state is present to show that oscillation around the input threshold voltage will produce an ambiguous situation. This is the reason the F state was divided into two separate ranges around the input threshold voltage. The 0, R (rise), and R combination as the final three states are defined with the same logic in mind. This combination wraps around to use the s0 X state as its unknown state in case of oscillation. The DO74LV-A_NX model represents the simple AtoD interface. The 0 state range is defined between the minimum input voltage and the input threshold voltage, and the 1 state range is defined between the input threshold voltage and the maximum input voltage. The order of the states in this model is meaningless since there are only two voltage ranges to sample from. AtoD Interface Subcircuits The AtoD interface subcircuit is the actual component that is placed between an analog component and a digital input internally when an analysis is entered. Two AtoD subcircuits will be created for this model in order to take advantage of both of the digital output device model statements created in the previous section. For the 74LV-A family, the subcircuits are as follows: .subckt ATOD_LV-A A D DPWR_3V DGND_3V + params: CAPACITANCE=0 O1 A DGND_3V DO74LV-A DGTLNET=D IO_LV-A C1 A DGND_3V {CAPACITANCE+.1P} D1 DGND_3V A D74 R1 A 1 170 C2 1 DGND_3V 1p .ends .subckt ATOD_LV-A_NX A D DPWR_3V DGND_3V + params: CAPACITANCE=0 O1 A DGND_3V DO74LV-A_NX DGTLNET=D IO_LV-A C1 A DGND_3V {CAPACITANCE+.1P} D1 DGND_3V A D74 R1 A 1 170 C2 1 DGND_3V 1p .ends The only differences in the two subcircuits are in the subcircuit name and in the model name that the O device references. This AtoD subcircuit consists of five components. The O device, referencing one of the model statements from the previous section, is the heart of the subcircuit and performs the AtoD conversion. The power and ground nodes throughout the subcircuit are given the same name as the power and ground nodes in the power supply subcircuit. The I/O model specification for the O device is defined with the name of the full I/O model, IO_LV-A, that will be created next. The CAPACITANCE parameter is used to increase the propagation delay through the device to account for excessive capacitive loading on the node caused by high fan-out and is modelled by the C1 capacitor in the subcircuit. This parameter will be overwritten by the INLD parameter available in the IO_LV-A model, so it is set to 0 for the subcircuit. The rest of the components are used to model the typical analog input circuitry of the digital component. For the 74LV-A family, which is created through a CMOS process, the input is dominated by the ESD protection scheme which is modelled by the D1 diode, R1 resistor, and C2 capacitor. The 74LV-A family has no current paths to the power node in order to be able to interface directly with TTL devices, so the power node in the AtoD interface subcircuit will be left floating. The power node is still available as it is frequently used in many digital families, and it is displayed as unconnected in the schematic equivalent of the AtoD interface shown below.

I/O Model Statement The I/O model provides the information necessary to determine the output strength when devices are wire-ored together and to create the interface circuits when the digital part is connected to an analog part. The model brings together all of the subcircuits and models defined in the previous sections for use by a digital component. The I/O model statement for the 74LV-A family appears as follows: .model IO_LV-A uio ( + DRVH=130 DRVL=130 + INLD=2.3p + ATOD1="ATOD_LV-A" ATOD2="ATOD_LV-A_NX" + ATOD3="ATOD_LV-A" ATOD4="ATOD_LV-A_NX" + DTOA1="DTOA_LV-A" DTOA2="DTOA_LV-A" + DTOA3="DTOA_LV-A" DTOA4="DTOA_LV-A" + TSWHL1=2.80n TSWHL2=2.80n + TSWHL3=2.80n TSWHL4=2.80n + TSWLH1=2.01n TSWLH2=2.01n + TSWLH3=2.01n TSWLH4=2.01n + DIGPOWER="DIGIFPWR_3V") DRVH and DRVL are the high state and low state impedances used to determine the output strength. The output strength is used to resolve the output state when a digital output is connected to other digital outputs. For the 74LV-A family, the line drive impedance is defined as 130 ohms for both the high and low states. The INLD parameter defines the input load capacitance. It is used to compute the optional loading delay through the device to account for excessive capacitive loading on the node caused by high fan-out. In this instance, a capacitance of 2.3pF was chosen by selecting an average input capacitance value from the products in the family. The ATOD1 through ATOD4 parameters define the names of the analog to digital interface subcircuits that will be called when an analog component is connected to a digital input. The actual subcircuit that will be chosen for an analysis will be determined by the IO_LEVEL parameter within a component that references the I/O model or by the Global Setting parameter, DIGIOLVL. If the value of DIGIOLVL is set to 2, then the subcircuit defined by the ATOD2 parameter will be used. Note that the simpler AtoD models have been defined as levels 2 and 4, whereas the more complex models are defined with levels 1 and 3. The DTOA1 through DTOA4 parameters define the names of the digital to analog interface subcircuits that will be called when a digital output is connected to an analog component. These parameters act in the same manner as the ATOD parameters. Since only one DtoA model has been defined for the family, that model is specified for all four parameters. The TSWLH1 through TSWLH4 and TSWHL1 through TSWHL4 define the switching times for the I/O model. The switching times are subtracted from the digital device's propagation delay on outputs which are connected to analog components. The purpose is to compensate for the time it takes the DtoA interface circuit to switch. By compensating in this way, the analog signal at the other side of the DtoA interface should reach the switching level just when the digital device does at the stated delay. If a switching time is greater than the device's stated delay, a delay of zero will be used. The IO_LEVEL parameter within a component or the DIGIOLVL Global Setting parameter also determines which of the four switching times it will use here also. Since the same DtoA subcircuit is used for all four cases in this family, the switching times will be the same for each level of a transition.

The switching time parameters in the I/O model are initially set to 0. To measure the switching times, a schematic similar to the one above may be used. The schematic consists of two separate circuits. The only difference between the two circuits is that the top one has a minimal load capacitance of .1pF whereas the bottom circuit has no load at all. The two digital stimulus sources start in the zero state, at 100ns transition to the one state, and at 200ns transition back to the zero state. These sources are fed into 74LV04A inverters which reference the I/O model that was just created. A transient analysis is run on this schematic with the results displayed below. Three waveforms are plotted: D(In), D(OutD), and V(OutA). D(In) is the digital input waveform from one of the stimulus sources. D(OutD) is the digital output waveform of the inverter with no load, and V(OutA) is the output voltage waveform of the inverter with a capacitive load. The switching time is measured from the point that the no-load output makes its transition to when the capacitive load output reaches either the Vih or Vil value depending on the transition. For example, to measure the high to low switching time, one cursor is placed at the point where the D(OutD) waveform has a HL transition, and the other cursor is placed at the point where the analog output reaches its Vil voltage which in this case is .8V. The switching time is the time differential between these two points which comes out to 2.80ns for the 74LV-A model. Similarly, for the low to high switching time, one cursor is placed at the LH transition for D(OutD), and the other cursor is placed at the point where the analog output reaches its Vih voltage which is 2V for this family. The low to high switching time is measured at 2.01ns. The switching time parameters are then updated with these new values.

The DIGPOWER parameter specifies the name of the power supply subcircuit to be used when an AtoD or DtoA interface is required. The parameter is defined with the name of the DIGIFPWR_3V subcircuit that was created at the beginning of the article. Example 74LV-A Family Digital Device The 74LV04A inverter from the switching time measurement shows how the I/O model is referenced in an actual device. .SUBCKT 74LV04A 1A 1Y + optional: DPWR_3V=$G_DPWR_3V DGND_3V=$G_DGND_3V + params: MNTYMXDLY=0 IO_LEVEL=0 U1 inv DPWR_3V DGND_3V + 1A 1Y + DLY_LV04 IO_LV-A MNTYMXDLY={MNTYMXDLY} IO_LEVEL={IO_LEVEL} .model DLY_LV04 ugate (tplhTY=7.3ns tplhMX=10.6ns tphlTY=7.3ns tphlMX=10.6ns) .ENDS 74LV04A Note that the power and ground nodes (for both the optional nodes and the inverter supply nodes) use the same name as those in the digital power supply subcircuit referenced by the I/O model, and the inverter device within the subcircuit uses IO_LV-A as its I/O model name.

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