Low-Power Field-Programmable VLSI Using Multiple Supply Voltages

Abstract

A low-power field-programmable VLSI (FPVLSI) is presented to overcome the problem of large power consumption in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). To reduce power consumption in routing networks, the FPVLSI consists of cells that are based on a bit-serial pipeline architecture which reduces routing block complexity. Moreover, a level-converter-less multiple-supply-voltage scheme using dynamic circuits is proposed, where the cells in non-critical paths use a low supply voltage for low power under a speed constraint. The FPVLSI is evaluated based on a 0.18-μm CMOS design rule. The power consumption of the FPVLSI using multiple supply voltages is reduced to 17% or less compared to that of the static-circuit-based FPVLSI using multiple supply voltages.