Maximum leakage power estimation for CMOS circuits

Abstract

Low supply voltage requires the device threshold to be reduced in order to maintain performance. As the device threshold voltage is reduced, it results in an exponential increase of leakage current in the subthreshold region. The leakage power is no longer negligible in such low voltage circuits. Estimates of maximum leakage power can be used in the design of the circuit to minimize the leakage power. The leakage power is dependent on the input vector. This input pattern dependence of the leakage power makes the problem of estimating the maximum leakage power a hard problem. In this paper, we present graph based algorithms for estimating the maximum leakage power. These algorithms are pattern-independent and do not require simulation of the circuit. Instead the circuit structure and the logic functionality of the components in the circuit are used to create a constraint graph. The problem of estimating the maximum leakage power is then transformed to an optimization problem on the constraint graph. Efficient algorithms on the graph are used to estimate the maximum leakage power dissipated by a circuit. We also present comparisons with exhaustive/long simulations for MCNC/ISCAS-85 benchmark circuits to verify the accuracy of the method.