BACKGROUND

This section is intended to provide information relevant to understanding the various technologies described herein. As the section's title implies, this is a discussion of related art that should in no way imply that it is prior art. Generally, related art may or may not be considered prior art. It should therefore be understood that any statement in this section should be read in this light, and not as any admission of prior art.

In conventional circuit designs, global distribution wires are typically routed in upper metal layers. A standard cell's power rails are typically routed horizontally, and the power rails are connected to upper global metal grid layers through stacked metal and via layers, or totems. A power distribution network needs to be designed to ensure a minimal voltage value is delivered to the standard cell to ensure proper electrical behavior.

In some advanced technologies, resistance of lower metal and via layers that are used for a standard cell grid and totem structures are significantly higher than the upper metal grid layers. Generally, resistance increases when descending into a standard cell stack such that lower metal layers are more resistive than upper metal layers, wherein resistance increases with decreasing pitch. Further, via resistances are also significantly higher than metal layer resistances.

