SHF: Small: Secure Power Management and Delivery Exploiting Intelligent Power Networks On-Chip

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The continued advance of society and emerging market segments require functionally diverse semiconductors. In these modern heterogeneous systems, functionally diverse circuits are integrated on-chip, requiring a wide range of high quality power supply voltages. In addition, as the need for portable, secure, and high-performance Integrated Circuits (ICs) increases, intelligent management of the energy budget becomes a primary concern. To satisfy evolving power delivery requirements, the classical approach for power generation and distribution has changed over the last decade. Power generation circuits are physically closer to the loads to provide enhanced control over the quality of delivered power. Heterogeneous power delivery systems with different types of off-chip, in-package, and distributed on-chip power converters must be effectively integrated into complex integrated circuit design methodologies. Software and firmware solutions are necessary to address the high design complexity of these hierarchical nonlinear power delivery systems with thousands of power delivery components and billions of loads. An effective power delivery solution must be developed which will provide a systematic and intelligent methodology, scalable distributed architectures, algorithms for distributed power management, and specialized circuits to support the development of next generation power efficient integrated systems.The primary research results of this project are to provide a systematic, scalable, intelligent, and secure solution for efficient on-chip power delivery and management. A fine grain power management framework comprising a variety of circuits, algorithms, and architectures will be developed to control power routing and switching, while optimally allocating power among a variety of different power domains at run time. To achieve efficient real-time multi-voltage power delivery, the following components will be developed: (a) a distributed, intelligent, and secure architecture for heterogeneous scalable on-chip power delivery, (b) a systematic methodology that exploits the distributed nature of the proposed architecture to provide real-time adaptive and efficient control over the quality of power, and (c) specialized circuits such as power routers, microcontrollers, and ultra-small voltage converters. These novel capabilities will fundamentally change the manner in which power is delivered and managed in complex, high performance heterogeneous systems. The development of these innovative power delivery methodologies for heterogeneous ICs will also provide new directions for educational initiatives targeting both university teaching and research activities within the broader academic community. The PI will promote the advancement and diversity of the science and engineering workforce to enhance underrepresented minority enrollment in science, technology, and engineering (STEM) programs.