High leakage current in deep-submicrometer regimes is becoming a significant contributor to power dissipation of CMOS circuits as threshold voltage, channel length, and gate oxide thickness are reduced. Consequently, the identification and modeling of different leakage components is very important for estimation and reduction of leakage power, especially for low-power applications. This paper reviews various transistor intrinsic leakage mechanisms, including weak inversion, drain-induced barrier lowering, gate-induced drain leakage, and gate oxide tunneling. Channel engineering techniques including retrograde well and halo doping are explained as means to manage short-channel effects for continuous scaling of CMOS devices. Finally, the paper explores different circuit techniques to reduce the leakage power consumption.

Leakage current mechanisms and leakage reduction techniques in deep-submicrometer CMOS circuits

Dynamic power management (DPM) is a design methodology for dynamically reconfiguring systems to provide the requested services and performance levels with a minimum number of active components or a minimum load on such components. DPM encompasses a set of techniques that achieves energy-efficient computation by selectively turning off (or reducing the performance of) system components when they are idle (or partially unexploited). In this paper, we survey several approaches to system-level dynamic power management. We first describe how systems employ power-manageable components and how the use of dynamic reconfiguration can impact the overall power consumption. We then analyze DPM implementation issues in electronic systems, and we survey recent initiatives in standardizing the hardware/software interface to enable software-controlled power management of hardware components.

A survey of design techniques for system-level dynamic power management : Special section on low-power electronics and design

Dynamic power management (DPM) is a design methodology for dynamically reconfiguring systems to provide the requested services and performance levels with a minimum number of active components or a minimum load on such components DPM encompasses a set of techniques that achieves energy-efficient computation by selectively turning off (or reducing the performance of) system components when they are idle (or partially unexploited) In this paper, we survey several approaches to system-level dynamic power management We first describe how systems employ power-manageable components and how the use of dynamic reconfiguration can impact the overall power consumption We then analyze DPM implementation issues in electronic systems, and we survey recent initiatives in standardizing the hardware/software interface to enable software-controlled power management of hardware components

/pdf/a-survey-of-design-techniques-for-system-level-dynamic-power-g09hpgdity.pdf

A survey of design techniques for system-level dynamic power management

This tutorial surveys design methods for energy-efficient system-level design. We consider electronic sytems consisting of a hardware platform and software layers. We consider the three major constituents of hardware that consume energy, namely computation, communication, and storage units, and we review methods of reducing their energy consumption. We also study models for analyzing the energy cost of software, and methods for energy-efficient software design and compilation. This survery is organized around three main phases of a system design: conceptualization and modeling design and implementation, and runtime management. For each phase, we review recent techniques for energy-efficient design of both hardware and software.

/pdf/system-level-power-optimization-techniques-and-tools-58sern1xgm.pdf

System-level power optimization: techniques and tools

An integrated single-inductor dual-output boost converter is presented. This converter adopts time-multiplexing control in providing two independent supply voltages (3.0 and 3.6 V) using only one 1-/spl mu/H off-chip inductor and a single control loop. This converter is analyzed and compared with existing counterparts in the aspects of integration, architecture, control scheme, and system stability. Implementation of the power stage, the controller, and the peripheral functional blocks is discussed. The design was fabricated with a standard 0.5-/spl mu/m CMOS n-well process. At an oscillator frequency of 1 MHz, the power conversion efficiency reaches 88.4% at a total output power of 350 mW. This topology can be extended to have multiple outputs and can be applied to buck, flyback, and other kinds of converters.

Single-inductor multiple-output switching converters with time-multiplexing control in discontinuous conduction mode

There are disclosed a semiconductor integrated circuit device, a semiconductor integrated circuit wiring method and a cell arranging method, which can reduce delay in a semiconductor integrated circuit and improve noise resistibility, achieve facility of wiring design, and reduce production cost. The present invention forms an X-Y reference wiring grid using wirings of a total of M (M≧2) layers in which an n-th (n≧2) layer wiring intersects orthogonally with a (n−1)-th layer wiring, and forms an oblique wiring grid which intersects with the reference wiring layer to have an angle of 45 degree or 135 degree is formed by a (m+1)-th layer wiring and a (m+2)-th layer wiring which are intersected orthogonally with each other, such that the (m+1)-th layer wiring and (m+2)-th layer wiring in the oblique wiring grid has a wiring pitch of {square root}{square root over ( )}2 times of that of wiring in the reference wiring grid, and also wiring widths of {square root}{square root over ( )}2 times of that of wiring in the reference wiring layer.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device, semiconductor integrated circuit wiring method, and cell arranging method

This paper describes an automated design technique to reduce power by making use of two supply voltages. The technique consists of structure synthesis, placement, and routing. The structure synthesizer clusters the gates off the critical paths so as to supply the reduced voltage to save power. The placement and routing tool assigns either the reduced voltage or the unreduced one to each row so as to minimize the area overhead. The reduced supply, voltage is also exploited in a clock tree to reduce power. Combining these techniques together, we applied it to a media processor chip. The combined technique reduced the power by 47% in random-logic modules and by 73% in the clock tree, while keeping the performance.

Automated low-power technique exploiting multiple supply voltages applied to a media processor

An arrangement method for logic cells in a semiconductor IC device, in which a plurality of logic cells are arranged on a semiconductor chip and wiring is performed between the logic cells so as to realize a desired circuit, comprises the steps of developing the logic cell informations to be arranged on the chip and already-arranged cell and wiring informations into connection pins and inhibited areas for wiring, converting the inhibited areas for wiring into equivalent pins so as to treat the inhibited areas for wiring equivalently with respect to the connection pins, and imaginarily dividing the chip into lattices and subsequently uniforming a ratio of a sum of the numbers of the connection pins and the equivalent pins to a region capable of arrangement in each lattice, whereby a position of each logic cell is determined.

Arrangement method for logic cells in semiconductor IC device

This paper describes an automated design technique to reduce power by making use of two supply voltages. The technique consists of structure synthesis, placement and routing. The structure synthesizer clusters the gates off the critical paths so as to supply the reduced voltage to save power. The placement and routing tool assigns either the reduced voltage or the unreduced one to each row so as to minimize the area overhead. Combining these techniques together, we applied it to the random logic modules of a media processor chip. The combined technique reduced the power by 47% on average with an area overhead of 15% at the random logic, while keeping the performance,.

In a pattern correction method, design layout data of a pattern designed by an automated layout unit is entered. An environmental profile is determined based on whether or not another graphics pattern exists at the surroundings of each correction target cell included in the entered design layout data. A target cell name is replaced with a prescribed cell name of correction pattern corresponding to the determined environmental profile by referencing a cell replacement table. An OPC correction pattern corresponding to the replaced cell name is imported from a cell library.

Mutsunori Igarashi

Papers

Semiconductor integrated circuit device, semiconductor integrated circuit wiring method, and cell arranging method

Automated low-power technique exploiting multiple supply voltages applied to a media processor

Arrangement method for logic cells in semiconductor IC device

Automated low-power technique exploiting multiple supply voltages applied to a media processor

Pattern correction method, apparatus, and program