Supply Voltage Settings Research Articles

Low-Power 19-Transistor True Single-Phase Clocking Flip-Flop Design Based on Logic Structure Reduction Schemes

In this paper, an ultralow-power true single-phase clocking flip-flop (FF) design achieved using only 19 transistors is proposed. The design follows a master–slave-type logic structure and features a hybrid logic design comprising both static-CMOS logic and complementary pass-transistor logic. In the design, a logic structure reduction scheme is employed to reduce the number of transistors for achieving high power and delay performance. Despite its circuit simplicity, no internal nodes are left floating during the operation to avoid leakage power consumption. In this design, a virtual $V_{{\mathrm{DD}}}$ design technique, which facilitates a faster state transition in the slave latch, is devised to enhance time performance. In circuit implementation, transistor sizes are optimized with respect to the power-delay product (PDP). A TSMC 90-nm CMOS process was selected as the implementation technology. In this paper, the performance levels of seven FF designs were compared. The timing parameters of each FF were first characterized. Post-layout simulation results indicated that the proposed design excelled in various performance indices such as PDP, clock-to-Q delay, average power consumption, and leakage power consumption. Moreover, the design was determined to have the smallest layout area. Compared with the conventional transmission-gate-based FF design, the PDP improvement in the proposed design was up to 63.5% (at 12.5% switching activity) and the area saving was approximately 10%. Further simulations on process corners, supply voltage settings, and working frequencies were conducted to study the design reliability.

Time-Division Multiplexing for Testing DVFS-Based SoCs

Dynamic voltage-frequency scaling (DVFS) is used in system-on-chips (SoCs) for power management, but it increases test time because every core must be tested at multiple voltage settings. In addition, testing at lower power supply voltage settings increases the length of each test due to the corresponding reduction in frequencies that can be used for scan shift operations. Existing test scheduling techniques do not consider test applications at multiple voltage settings, therefore they are not effective for reducing test time for DVFS-based SoCs. We propose a time-division multiplexing (TDM) architecture, which uses the highest available frequency for shifting test data into the SoC and then distributes the test data into multiple cores using lower shift frequencies. TDM is accompanied by three test scheduling methods, which are suitable for different scenarios: 1) an integer linear programming-based formulation that offers optimal results for SOCs of moderate size; 2) a greedy approach that provides good results with very short run time even for very large SoCs; and 3) a rectangle-packing approach combined with simulated-annealing that offers a trade-off between run time and test-time reduction for all SoCs. Experimental results on two industrial SoCs highlight the effectiveness of TDM and the associated scheduling methods.

Gate-Sizing-Based Single $V_{\rm dd}$ Test for Bridge Defects in Multivoltage Designs

The use of multiple voltage settings for dynamic power management is an effective design technique. Recent research has shown that testing for resistive bridging faults in such designs requires more than one voltage setting for 100% fault coverage; however, switching between several supply voltage settings has a detrimental impact on the overall cost of test. This paper proposes an effective gate sizing technique for reducing test cost of multi-Vdd designs with bridge defects. Using synthesized ISCAS and ITC benchmarks and a parametric fault model, experimental results show that for all the circuits, the proposed technique achieves single Vdd test, without affecting the fault coverage of the original test. In addition, the proposed technique performs better in terms of timing, area, and power than the recently proposed test point insertion technique. This is the first reported work that achieves single Vdd test for resistive bridge defects, without compromising fault coverage in multi-Vdd designs.

Bridging Fault Test Method With Adaptive Power Management Awareness

A key design constraint of circuits used in hand-held devices is the power consumption, mainly due to battery-life limitations. Adaptive power management (APM) techniques aim at increasing the battery life of such devices by adjusting the supply voltage and operating frequency, and thus the power consumption, according to the workload. Testing for resistive bridging defects in APM-enabled designs raises a number of challenges due to their complex analog behavior. Testing at more than one supply voltage setting can be employed to improve defect coverage in such systems; however, switching between several supply voltage settings has a detrimental impact on the overall cost of test. This paper proposes a multi- automatic test generation method which delivers 100% resistive bridging defect coverage and also a way of reducing the number of supply voltage settings required during test through test point insertion. The proposed techniques have been experimentally validated using a number of benchmark circuits.

A low-Voltage 10-bit CMOS DAC in 0.01-mm/sup 2/ die area

A low-voltage 10-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for static/dc operation is fabricated in a standard 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The DAC is optimized for large integrated circuit systems where possibly dozens of such DAC would be employed for the purpose of digitally controlled analog circuit calibration. The DAC occupies 110 /spl mu/m/spl times/94 /spl mu/m die area. A segmented R-2R architecture is used for the DAC core in order to maximize matching accuracy for a minimal use of die area. A pseudocommon centroid layout is introduced to overcome the layout restrictions of conventional common centroid techniques. A linear current mirror is proposed in order to achieve linear output current with reduced voltage headroom. The measured differential nonlinearity by integral nonlinearity (DNL/INL) is better than 0.7/0.75 LSB and 0.8/2 LSB for 1.8-V and 1.4-V power supplies, respectively. The DAC remains monotonic (|DNL|<1 LSB) as INL reaches 4 LSB down to 1.3-V operation. The DAC consumes 2.2 mA of current at all supply voltage settings.