Behnam Amelifard

Leakage Minimization of SRAM Cells in a Dual-

Aggressive CMOS scaling results in low threshold voltage and thin oxide thickness for transistors manufactured in deep submicrometer regime. As a result, reducing the subthreshold and tunneling gate leakage currents has become one of the most important criteria in the design of VLSI circuits. This paper presents a method based on dual- V t and dual- T ox assignment to reduce the total leakage power dissipation of static random access memories (SRAMs) while maintaining their performance. The proposed method is based on the observation that read and write delays of a memory cell in an SRAM block depend on the physical distance of the cell from the sense amplifier and the decoder. Thus, the idea is to deploy different configurations of six-transistor SRAM cells corresponding to different threshold voltage and oxide thickness assignments for the transistors. Unlike other techniques for low-leakage SRAM design, the proposed technique incurs neither area nor delay overhead. In addition, it results in a minor change in the SRAM design flow. The leakage saving achieved by using this technique is a function of the values of the high threshold voltage and the oxide thickness, as well as the number of rows and columns in the cell array. Simulation results with a 65-nm process demonstrate that this technique can reduce the total leakage power dissipation of a 64 times 512 SRAM array by 33% and that of a 32 times 512 SRAM array by 40%.

V_t

Based on the idea of sharing two adders used in the carry select adder (CSA), a new design of a low-power high-performance adder is presented. The new adder is faster than a ripple carry adder (RCA), but slower than a CSA. On the other hand, its area and power dissipation are smaller than those of a CSA.

and Dual-

Aggressive CMOS scaling results in low threshold voltage and thin oxide thickness for transistors manufactured in very deep submicron regime. As a result, reducing the subthreshold and gate-tunneling leakage currents has become one of the most important criteria in the design of VLSI circuits. This paper presents a method based on dual-V t and dual-Tox assignment to reduce the total leakage power dissipation of SRAMs while maintaining their performance. The proposed method is based on the observation that the read and write delays of a memory cell in an SRAM block depend on the physical distance of the cell from the sense amplifier and the decoder. Thus, the idea is to deploy different types of six-transistor SRAM cells corresponding to different threshold voltage and oxide thickness assignments for the transistors. Unlike other techniques for low-leakage SRAM design, the proposed technique incurs neither area nor delay overhead. In addition, it results in a minor change in the SRAM design flow. Simulation results with a 65 nm process demonstrate that this technique can reduce the total leakage power dissipation of a 64 Kb SRAM by more than 50%

T_{\rm ox}

This paper introduces techniques for power-efficient design of power-delivery network (PDN) in multiple voltage-island system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The first technique is targeted to SoC designs with static-voltage assignment, while the second technique is pertinent to SoC designs with dynamic-voltage scaling (DVS) capability. Conventionally, a single-level configuration of dc-dc converters, where exactly one converter resides between the power source and each load, is used to deliver currents at appropriate voltage levels to different loads on the chip. In the presence of DVS capability, each dc-dc converter in this network should be able to adjust its output voltage. In the first part of this paper, it is shown that, in a SoC design with static-voltage assignment, a multilevel tree topology of suitably chosen dc-dc converters between the power source and loads can result in higher power efficiency in the PDN. The problem is formulated as a combinatorial problem and is efficiently solved by dynamic programming. In the second part of this paper, a new technique is presented to design the PDN for a SoC design to support DVS. In this technique, the PDN is composed of two layers. In the first layer, dc-dc converters with fixed output voltages are used to generate all voltage levels that are needed by different loads in the SoC design. In the second layer of the PDN, a power-switch network is used to dynamically connect the power-supply terminals of each load to the appropriate dc-dc converter output in the first layer. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of both techniques.

Technology

With the scaling down of the CMOS technologies, Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) has become a major concern due to its impact on PMOS transistor aging process and the corresponding reduction in the long-term reliability of CMOS circuits. This paper investigates the effect of NBTI phenomenon on the setup and hold times of flip-flops. First, it is shown that NBTI tightens the setup and hold timing constraints imposed on the flip-flops in the design. Second, different types of flip-flops exhibit different levels of susceptibility to NBTI-induced change in their setup/hold time values. Finally, an NBTI-aware transistor sizing technique can minimize the NBTI effect on timing characteristics of the flip-flops.

Closing the gap between carry select adder and ripple carry adder: a new class of low-power high-performance adders

This paper presents a current source model (CSM) of a CMOS logic cell, which captures simultaneous switching of multiple inputs while accounting for the effect of internal node voltages of the logic cell. Characterization procedures for various components of the proposed CSM are described and application of the model to output waveform computation is discussed. Experimental results to assess the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed multiple input switching CSM in the context of noise and timing analyses in VLSI circuits are reported.

Reducing the Sub-threshold and Gate-tunneling Leakage of SRAM Cells using Dual-Vt and Dual-Tox Assignment

This paper presents a method based on dual threshold voltage assignment to reduce the leakage power dissipation of SRAMs while maintaining their performance. The proposed method is based on the observation that the read and write delays of a memory cell in an SRAM block depend on the physical distance of the cell from the sense amplifier and the decoder. The key idea is thus to realize and deploy different types of six-transistor SRAM cells corresponding to different threshold voltage assignments for individual transistors in the cell. Unlike other techniques for low-leakage SRAM design, the proposed technique incurs no area or delay overhead. In addition, it results only in a slight change in the SRAM design flow. Finally, it improves the static noise margin under process variations. Experimental results show that this technique can reduce the leakage-power dissipation of a 64Kb SRAM by more than 35%

Optimal Design of the Power-Delivery Network for Multiple Voltage-Island System-on-Chips

High efficiency low voltage DC-DC conversion is a key enabler to the design of power-efficient integrated circuits. Typically a star configuration of the DC-DC converters, where only one converter resides between the source and each load, is used to deliver currents with appropriate voltage levels to different loads in the circuit, hi this paper we show that using a tree topology of suitably chosen voltage regulators between the power source and loads yields higher power efficiency in the power delivery network. We formulize the problem of selecting the best set of regulators in a tree topology as a dynamic program and efficiently solve it. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of proposed problem formulation and solution.

NBTI-aware flip-flop characterization and design

Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is known to be one of the most efficient techniques for power reduction of integrated circuits. Efficient low voltage DC-DC conversion is a key enabler for the design of any DVS technique. In this paper we show how to design an efficient power delivery network for a complex system-on-a-chip (SoC) so as to enable dynamic power management through assignment of appropriate voltage level (and the corresponding clock frequency) to each function block in the SoC. We show that the proposed technique reduces the power loss of the power delivery network by an average of 34% while reducing its cost by an average of 8%.

A current source model for CMOS logic cells considering multiple input switching and stack effect

This paper addresses the problem of low-power fanout optimization. We show that due to neglecting short-circuit current, previous analytical techniques proposed to optimize the area of a fanout tree may result in excessive power consumption. This show to achieve a low-power fanout tree, an accurate power consumption model should be used as the objective function. Moreover, we propose an efficient method to minimize the total power consumption of a fanout tree by using MTCMOS and multi-Vt techniques. Experimental results show that depending on the activity factor of the circuit, the proposed technique can reduce the power consumption of the fanout tree 18% to 45%