Executive Summary: Advances in Ultra-Low-Voltage Design

The idea of exploiting weak-inversion operation for low power circuits was pioneered by Dr. Eric Vittoz in the 1960´s, and has led to many recent advances in sub-threshold circuit design. Today, sub-threshold operation provides a compelling solution for a number of emerging energy-constrained systems implemented in scaled CMOS technologies. This article by Joyce Kwong and Anantha Chandrakasan, to be printed in full in the SSCS Fall News, outlines some recent advances and challenges associated with sub-threshold circuit design, including the design of new logic and memory circuits, support circuitry, and the use of redundancy.