Abstract
This paper presents a nonvolatile logic (NVL)-based 32-b microcontroller system-on-chip (SoC) that backs up its working state (all flip-flops) upon receiving a power interrupt, has zero leakage in sleep mode, and needs less than 400 ns to restore the system state upon power-up. Nonvolatile Fe-Cap-based mini-arrays backup the machine state and allow the chip to wake up instantly after a power cycle. Without NVL, a chip would either have to keep all flip-flops powered, resulting in high standby power, or waste energy and time rebooting after power-up. NVL allows systems to use leakier processes to achieve higher performance/lower dynamic power while still having zero leakage in the sleep mode. Optimized system, architecture, and circuit techniques are presented that make NVL practical by adding only 3.6% to the SoC area. Since nonvolatile elements are added to the SoC, reliability and testability have to be key features of the design. This is the first NVL SoC with measured NVL bitcell read signal margin data and extensive test and debug capabilities. The chip is fabricated in a commercial 130-nm low-leakage process and uses a single 1.5-V power supply.
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