Clock Skew: Implication on Timing

Clock Skew is an important parameter that greatly influences the timing checks and you would often find the backend design engineers always keeping a close eye on the clock skew numbers. 

Clock Skew: The difference in arrival times of the clock signal at any two flops which are interacting with one another is referred to as clock skew. Having said that, please note that skew only makes sense for two flops which are interacting with one another, i.e. they make a launch-capture pair. 

If the clock at the capture flop takes more time to reach as compared to the clock at the launch flop, we refer to it as Positive Clock Skew. And when the clock at capture flop takes less time to reach the clock at the launch flop, we refer to it as Negative Clock Skew.

The figure below describes positive & negative clock skew. Assume the delays of clock tree buffers to be the same.

How does clock skew impact the timing checks, in particular, setup and hold? Consider the above example where FF1 is the launching flop and FF2 is the capturing flop. If the clock skew between FF1 and FF2 was zero, the setup and hold checks would be as follows:

• Positive Skew: Now imagine the case where clock skew is positive. Here, clock at FF2 takes more time to reach as compared to the time taken by the clock to reach the FF1. Recall that the setup check means that the data launched should reach the capture flop at most setup time before the next clock edge. As evident in the below the data launched from FF1 gets an extra time equal to the skew to reach FF2. Hence setup is relaxed! However, hold check means that data launched should reach the capture flop at least hold time after the clock edge. Hence, the hold is further made critical in case of positive skew. Read the definitions again and again till you grasp it!!

• Negative Skew: Here, clock at FF1 takes more time to reach as compared to the time taken by the clock to reach the FF2. As evident in the below the data launched from FF1 gets lesser time equal to the skew to reach FF2. Hence setup is more critical! However, hold is relaxed!
  
  Some Key Points to Note:
• Setup is the next cycle check, and positive skew relaxes the setup check and negative skew further tightens it.
• Hold is the same cycle check, and negative skew relaxes the hold check and positive skew further tightens it.
• Very rarely would one come across a path that is both setup as well as hold critical. Setup becomes critical when data path is huge or you have a large negative skew; and hold becomes critical when either data path is minimal or you have a large positive skew. Both these conditions are mutually exclusive and very rarely does they manifest themselves simultaneously. It is often a case when the uncommon clock path is significant. We shall discuss it in detail later.