Evaluation of low-leakage design techniques for field programmable gate arrays

ABSTRACT

In this paper we evaluate the trade-offs between various low-leakage design techniques for field programmable gate arrays (FGPAs) in deep sub-micron technologies. Since multiplexers are widely used in FPGAs for implementing look up tables (LUTs) and connection and routing switches, several low-leakage implementations of pass transistor based multiplexers and routing switches are proposed and their design trade-offs are presented based on transistor-level simulation, physical design, and impact on overall system performance. We find that gate biasing, the use of redundant SRAM cells, and integration of multi-Vt technology are ideal for FPGAs, and they can reduce leakage current by 2X-4X compared to an implementation without any leakage reduction technique. For some of the potential low-leakage design techniques being evaluated in our study, the impact on chip area is very minimal to an increase of 15%-30%.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.1 Types and Design Styles
          Subjects: VLSI (very large scale integration)

Additional Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.6 LOGIC DESIGN
      B.6.1 Design Styles
          Subjects: Logic arrays
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.1 Types and Design Styles
          Subjects: Gate arrays

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
FPGA, leakage power, multiplexer