Design methodology for fine-grained leakage control in MTCMOS

ABSTRACT

Multi-threshold CMOS is a popular technique for reducing standby leakage power with low delay overhead. MTCMOS designs typically use large sleep devices to reduce standby leakage at the block level. We provide a formal examination of sneak leakage paths and a design methodology that enables gate-level insertion of sleep devices for sequential and combinational circuits. A fabricated 0.13 μm, dual V T testchip employs this methodology to implement a low-power FPGA core with gate-level sleep FETs and over 8X measured standby current reduction. The methodology allows local sleep regions that reduce leakage in active CLBs by up to 2.2X (measured) for some CLB configurations.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.1 Types and Design Styles

General Terms:
Design, Performance, Reliability

Keywords:
MTCMOS, circuit design, design methodology, fine-grain sleep regions, leakage, low power, sleep mode, sneak leakage