Title :
A Low-Voltage Processor for Sensing Applications With Picowatt Standby Mode
Author :
Hanson, Scott ; Seok, Mingoo ; Lin, Yu-Shiang ; Foo, Zhiyoong ; Kim, Daeyeon ; Lee, Yoonmyung ; Liu, Nurrachman ; Sylvester, Dennis ; Blaauw, David
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
fDate :
4/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Recent progress in ultra-low-power circuit design is creating new opportunities for cubic millimeter computing. Robust low-voltage operation has reduced active mode power consumption considerably, but standby mode power consumption has received relatively little attention from low-voltage designers. In this work, we describe a low-voltage processor called the Phoenix Processor that has been designed at the device, circuit, and architecture levels to minimize standby power. A test chip has been implemented in a carefully selected 0.18 mum process in an area of only 915 times 915 mum2. Measurements show that Phoenix consumes 35.4 pW in standby mode and 226 nW in active mode.
Keywords :
emergency power supply; low-power electronics; microprocessor chips; microsensors; random-access storage; Phoenix processor; low-voltage processor; picowatt standby mode; power 226 nW; power 35.4 pW; sensing applications; size 0.18 mum; size 915 mum; ultralow-leakage memory cell; ultralow-power circuit design; wireless monitoring system; Batteries; Biomedical monitoring; Circuits; Computer applications; Energy consumption; Micromechanical devices; Millimeter wave devices; Pressure measurement; Robustness; Voltage; Low voltage; ultra-low leakage; ultra-low power;
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JSSC.2009.2014205
