Title :
A 63-μW standby power microcontroller with on-chip hybrid regulator scheme
Author :
Hiraki, Mitsuru ; Ito, Takayasu ; Fujiwara, Atsushi ; Ohashi, Taichi ; Hamano, Tetsuro ; Noda, Takaaki
Author_Institution :
Semicond. & Integrated Circuits, Hitachi Ltd., Kokubunji, Japan
fDate :
5/1/2002 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Presents a 32-b RISC microcontroller having an on-chip dc-dc converter. The chip standby power including the dc-dc converter is reduced to 63 μW with a new hybrid regulator scheme in which the microcontroller selects a switching regulator in active mode and a series regulator in standby mode. The achieved standby power corresponds to only about 1% of the standby power with a conventional scheme which always uses a switching regulator. Off-chip power transistor-type configuration suppresses pin-count increase caused by implementing an on-chip switching regulator. A series regulator that could be used instead of the switching regulator in active mode was also implemented on the chip. The series regulator does not impact the chip size because it is divided and inserted into I/O area that was originally left unused
Keywords :
computer power supplies; integrated circuit design; low-power electronics; microcontrollers; reduced instruction set computing; voltage regulators; 32 bit; 63 muW; RISC microcontroller; active mode; chip size; on-chip hybrid regulator; pin-count increase; series regulator; standby power; switching regulator; Indium tin oxide; Large scale integration; Microcontrollers; Parasitic capacitance; Reduced instruction set computing; Regulators; Switching circuits; Switching converters; System-on-a-chip; Voltage;
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
