This document discusses various methods for low power design in VLSI circuits. It covers reducing dynamic and static power sources. Dynamic power is lowered through reducing supply voltage, glitch elimination, and minimizing switching activity. Static leakage power is decreased using multi-threshold devices and power gating. System level techniques include state encoding, clock gating, and power-efficient processor and memory designs. Challenges in low power design are also addressed.

1. LOW POWER DESIGN
METHODS
V.ANANDI
ASST.PROF,E&C
MSRIT,BANGALORE

2. Course Objective
Low-power is a current need in VLSI
design.
Learn basic ideas, concepts and methods.
Gain hands-on experience.

3. Contents
 Introduction
 Dynamic power
Short circuit power
Reduced supply voltage operation
Glitch elimination
 Static (leakage) power reduction
 Low power systems
State encoding
Processor and multi-core design
 Books on low-power design

4. Introduction
Why is it a concern?
Business & technical needs
Semiconductor processing technology
Power Consumption of VLSI Chips

5. NEED FOR LOW POWER
More transistors are packed into the chip.
Increased market demand for portable
devices.
Environmental concerns

6. Meaning of Low-Power Design
 Design practices that reduce power
consumption at least by one order of magnitude;
in practice 50% reduction is often acceptable.
 General considerations in low-power design
Algorithms and architectures
High-level and software techniques
Gate and circuit-level methods
Power estimation techniques
Test power

7. Topics in Low-Power
 Power dissipation in CMOS circuits
 Device technology
 Low-power CMOS technologies
 Energy recovery methods
 Circuit and gate level methods
 Logic synthesis
 Dynamic power reduction techniques
 Leakage power reduction
 System level methods
 Microprocessors
 Arithmetic circuits
 Low power memory technology
 Test power
 Power estimation methods and tools

8. Low-Power Design Techniques
Circuit and gate level methods
Reduced supply voltage
Adiabatic switching and charge recovery
Logic design for reduced activity
Reduced Glitches
Transistor sizing
Pass-transistor logic
Pseudo-nMOS logic
Multi-threshold gates

9. Low-Power Design Techniques
Functional and architectural methods
Clock suppression
Clock frequency reduction
Supply voltage reduction
Power down
Algorithmic and Software methods

10. Power Dissipation in CMOS
Logic (0.25µ)
%75 %5
%20
Ptotal (0→1) = CL VDD
2 + tscVDD Ipeak + VDDIleakage
CL
VDD VDD

11. Degrees of Freedom
The three degrees of freedom are:
Supply Voltage
Switching Activity
Physical capacitance

12. Components of Power
Dynamic
Signal transitions
Logic activity
Glitches
Short-circuit
Static
Leakage Ptotal = Pdyn + Pstat
= Ptran + Psc + Pstat

13. CMOS Dynamic Power
Dynamic Power = Σ 0.5 αi fclk CLi VDD
2
All gates i
≈ 0.5 α fclk CL VDD
2
≈ α01 fclk CL VDD
2
where α average gate activity factor
α01 = 0.5α, average 0→1 trans.
fclk clock frequency
CL total load capacitance
VDD supply voltage

14. Dynamic Power
VDD
Ground
CL
R
R
Dynamic Power
= CLVDD
2/2 + Psc
Vi
Vo
isc

15. Summary: Short-Circuit Power
 Short-circuit power is consumed by each
transition (increases with input transition time).
 Reduction requires that gate output transition
should not be faster than the input transition
(faster gates can consume more short-circuit
power).
 Increasing the output load capacitance reduces
short-circuit power.
 Scaling down of supply voltage with respect to
threshold voltages reduces short-circuit power.

16. Dynamic Power Reduction
Reduce power per transition
Reduced voltage operation – voltage scaling
Capacitance minimization – device sizing
Reduce number of transitions
Glitch elimination

17. Glitch Power Reduction
Design a digital circuit for minimum
transient energy consumption by
eliminating hazards

18. Static (Leakage) Power
Dynamic
Signal transitions
Logic activity
Glitches
Short-circuit
Static
Leakage

19. Leakage Power
IG
ID
Isub
IPT
IGIDL
n+ n+
Ground
VDD
R

20. Leakage Current Components
Subthreshold conduction, Isub
Reverse bias pn junction conduction, ID
Gate induced drain leakage, IGIDL due to
tunneling at the gate-drain overlap
Drain source punchthrough, IPT due to
short channel and high drain-source
voltage
Gate tunneling, IG through thin oxide

21. Reducing Leakage Power
 Leakage power as a fraction of the total power
increases as clock frequency drops. Turning
supply off in unused parts can save power.
 For a gate it is a small fraction of the total power;
it can be significant for very large circuits.
 Scaling down features requires lowering the
threshold voltage, which increases leakage
power; roughly doubles with each shrinking.
 Multiple-threshold devices are used to reduce
leakage power.

22. Low-Power System Design
State encoding
Bus encoding
Finite state machine
Clock gating
Flip-flop
Shift register
Microprocessors
Single processor
Multi-core processor

23. Clock-Gating in Low-Power Flip-Flop
D Q
D
CK

24. Power Reduction in Processors
Hardware methods:
Voltage reduction for dynamic power
Dual-threshold devices for leakage reduction
Clock gating, frequency reduction
Sleep mode
Architecture:
Instruction set
hardware organization
Software methods

25. A Multicore Design
Multiplier
Core 1
Multiplier
Core 5
Reg
Reg
Reg
Reg
5
to
1
mux
Multiphase
Clock gen.
and mux
control
Input
Output
200MHz
CK
200MHz
40MHz
40MHz
40MHz
Multiplier
Core 2
Core clock frequency = 200/N, N should divide 200.

26. Challenges
 Development of low Vt, supply voltage and design
technique
 Low power interconnect and reduced activity approaches
 Low-power system synchronization
 Dynamic power-management techniques
 Development of application-specific processing
 Self-adjusting and adaptive circuits
 Integrated design methodology
 Power-conscious techniques and tools development
 Severe supply fluctuations or current spikes

27. REFERENCES on Low-Power Design
 A. Chandrakasan and R. Brodersen, Low-Power Digital CMOS Design,
Boston: Springer, 1995.
 A. Chandrakasan and R. Brodersen, Low-Power CMOS Design, New York:
IEEE Press, 1998.
 J. M. Rabaey and M. Pedram, Low Power Design Methodologies,
Boston: Springer, 1996.
 K. Roy and S. C. Prasad, Low-Power CMOS VLSI Circuit Design, New
York: Wiley-Interscience, 2000.
 G. K. Yeap, Practical Low Power Digital VLSI Design, Boston:Springer, 1998.
 Tutorial on low power by Vishwani.D.Aggarwal VDAT’06 Symposium on low
power design methodologies.