From transistors to MEMS: Throughput-aware power gating in CMOS circuits
From transistors to MEMS: Throughput-aware power gating in CMOS circuits
复制标题
从晶体管到 MEMS：CMOS 电路中的吞吐量感知功率门控
DOI：
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
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通讯作者：
L. Nazhandali
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Michael B. Henry;L. Nazhandali
在本文中，我们研究了两种功率门控方法-晶体管开关和MEMS开关-在降低具有一定目标吞吐量的设计的功耗方面的有效性。晶体管开关很简单，但在有效性方面存在根本限制。在过去的十年中，处于关断状态的零泄漏的MEMS开关在射频领域得到了广泛的关注，但直到最近才在功率门控的背景下进行了探索。在本文中，我们结合电压调节对这两种方法进行了研究，表明MEMS开关在各种目标吞吐量方面是更好的选择，特别是在无线传感器网络和生物医学植入物等低吞吐量应用中。我们还表明，当使用MEMS开关而不是晶体管开关时，吞吐量感知设计中的架构选择和操作条件可能会有很大的不同。例如，晶体管开关偏爱更小、更慢的架构，而当目标吞吐量较低时，MEMS开关偏爱更大、更快的设计。此外，晶体管开关设计的最佳工作电压位于亚阈值区域，而MEMS开关设计的最佳工作电压可以高于或接近阈值电压。为了证明这一点，我们提供了四种不同FFT结构的数学分析和实验结果。
In this paper we study the effectiveness of two power gating methods - transistor switches and MEMS switches - in reducing the power consumption of a design with a certain target throughput. Transistor switches are simple, but have fundamental limitations in their effectiveness. MEMS switches, with zero leakage in the off state, have achieved much focus over the past decade in the RF field, but have only very recently been explored in the context of power gating. In this paper we study both methods in conjunction with voltage scaling and show that MEMS switches are the superior choice over a wide range of target throughputs, especially low-throughput applications such as wireless sensor networks and biomedical implants. We also show that the architectural choices and operating conditions in a throughput-aware design can be profoundly different when using MEMS switches as opposed to transistor switches. For instance, while transistor switches favor smaller and slower architectures, the MEMS switches favor larger and faster designs when the target throughput is low. Moreover, while the optimal operating voltage of a transistor-switched design resides in the subthreshold region, that of a MEMS-switched design can be above or near the threshold voltage. To prove this, we provide both a mathematical analysis and experimental results from four different FFT architectures.