Minimum energy point tracking based on adaptive voltage scaling circuit

Abstract

In order to realize the low-voltage and low-power dissipation designing of digital circuits, minimum energy point tracking (MEPT) based on adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) circuit is proposed in this paper. With process, voltage and temperature and frequency variance, the supply voltage of digital circuits is decreased dramatically by AVS, and equals to minimum voltage point (MVP), and advantageously in reducing dynamic energy consumption. Based on the MVP, in order to effectively decrease energy consumption of digital circuits, minimum energy point (MEP) of digital circuits is searched via comparing energy dissipation under different supply voltage by MEPT. Therefore, the supply voltage and energy consumption of digital circuits are decreased dramatically by the proposed novel circuit. The proposed circuit has been implemented and fabricated in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process. The experimental results show that, when operating frequency of load keeps 1.319 MHz, the MVP and MEP of load are 425 and 450 mV, respectively. For operation frequency 5.334 MHz, the MEP changes from 625 to 550 mV with the degree of activity of load difference. Comparing with the traditional fixed voltage circuits, the maximum saving 91% of dynamic energy is realized by the proposed circuit.