Abstract
An ultra-low-power MicroController Unit System-on-Chip (MCU SOC) is described with integrated DC to DC power management and Adaptive Dynamic Voltage Control (ADVC) mechanism. The SOC, designed and fabricated in a 40 nm ULP standard CMOS technology, includes the complete Synopsys ARC EM5D core MCU, featuring a full set of DSP instructions and minimizing energy consumption at a wide range of frequencies: 312 K–80 MHz. A number of unique low voltage digital libraries, comprising of approximately 300 logic cells and sequential elements, were used for the MCU SOC design. On-die silicon sensors were utilized to continuously change the operating voltage to optimize power/performance for a given frequency and environmental conditions, and also to resolve yield and life time problems, while operating at low voltages. A First Fail (FFail) mechanism, which can be digitally and linearly controlled with up to 8 bits, detects the failing SOC voltage at a given frequency. The core operates between 0.45–1.1 V volts with a direct battery connection for an input voltage of 1.6–3.6 V. Measurement results show that the peak energy efficiency is 18μW/MHz. A comparison to state-of-the-art commercial SOCs is presented, showing a 3–5× improved current/DMIPS (Dhrystone Million Instructions per second) compared to the next best chip.
Highlights
With advances in Internet of Thing (IoT) applications and the expansion of mobile devices, energy consumption has become a primary focus of attention in integrated circuits design [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]
Unlike devices that operate with an unlimited power supply, these mobile battery-operated units need to operate for extended periods without recharging, requiring ultra-low energy consumption
We extend the content by adding detailed descriptions of the concepts of library characterization, first fail circuit operation, DC2DC and ADC circuits and providing schemes of the circuits, used in the Power Management Unit (PMU)
Summary
With advances in Internet of Thing (IoT) applications and the expansion of mobile devices, energy consumption has become a primary focus of attention in integrated circuits design [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. While IoT applications cover a broad range of products from wearable devices, smart houses, automotive devices, smart meters to inspection tools and many others, more than 50% of the market is dominated by battery operated devices. This includes wearable sensors, hearing aids, smart phones, smart meters, etc. The design of complex (and cost efficient) Systems on a Chips (SoC) that can support both minimum energy operation, and reliably adapt their operating voltage to different environmental conditions is very challenging
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