Design of a Flexible Reactivation Cell for Safe Power-Mode Transition in Power-Gated Circuits

Abstract

Power-gating is one of the most promising and widely adopted solutions for controlling sub-threshold leakage power in nanometer circuits. Although single-cycle power-mode transition reduces wake-up latency, it develops large discharge current spikes, thereby causing IR-drop and inductive ground bounce for the neighboring circuit blocks, which can suffer from power plane integrity degradation. We propose a new reactivation solution that helps in controlling power supply fluctuations and achieving minimum reactivation times. Our structure limits the turn-on current below a given threshold through a sequential activation of the sleep transistors (STs), which are connected in parallel and sized using a novel optimal sizing algorithm. We also introduce a distributed physical implementation, which allows minimum layout disruption after ST insertion and minimizes routing congestion.