Digital IP Protection Using Threshold Voltage Control

This paper proposes a method to completely hide the functionality of a digital standard cell. This is accomplished by a differential threshold logic gate (TLG). A TLG with $n$ inputs implements a subset of Boolean functions of $n$ variables that are linear threshold functions. The output of such a gate is one if and only if an integer weighted linear arithmetic sum of the inputs equals or exceeds a given integer threshold. We present a novel architecture of a TLG that not only allows a single TLG to implement a large number of complex logic functions, which would require multiple levels of logic when implemented using conventional logic primitives, but also allows the selection of that subset of functions by assignment of the transistor threshold voltages to the input transistors. To obfuscate the functionality of the TLG, weights of some inputs are set to zero by setting their device threshold to be a high $V_t$. The threshold voltage of the remaining transistors is set to low $V_t$ to increase their transconductance. The function of a TLG is not determined by the cell itself but rather the signals that are connected to its inputs. This makes it possible to hide the support set of the function by essentially removing some variable from the support set of the function by selective assignment of high and low $V_t$ to the input transistors. We describe how a standard cell library of TLGs can be mixed with conventional standard cells to realize complex logic circuits, whose function can never be discovered by reverse engineering. A 32-bit Wallace tree multiplier and a 28-bit 4-tap filter were synthesized on an ST 65nm process, placed and routed, then simulated including extracted parastics with and without obfuscation. Both obfuscated designs had much lower area (25%) and much lower dynamic power (30%) than their nonobfuscated CMOS counterparts, operating at the same frequency

FORCED STACK SLEEP TRANSISTOR (FORTRAN): A NEW LEAKAGE CURRENT REDUCTION APPROACH IN CMOS BASED CIRCUIT DESIGNING

Reduction in leakage current has become a significant concern in nanotechnology-based low-power, low-voltage, and high-performance VLSI applications. This research article discusses a new low-power circuit design the approach of FORTRAN (FORced stack sleep TRANsistor), which decreases the leakage power efficiency in the CMOS-based circuit outline in VLSI domain. FORTRAN approach reduces leakage current in both active as well as standby modes of operation. Furthermore, it is not time intensive when the circuit goes from active mode to standby mode and vice-versa. To validate the proposed design approach, experiments are conducted in the Tanner EDA tool of mentor graphics bundle on projected circuit designs for the full adder, a chain of 4-inverters, and 4-bit multiplier designs utilizing 180nm, 130nm, and 90nm TSMC technology node. The outcomes obtained show the result of a 95-98% vital reduction in leakage power as well as a 15-20% reduction in dynamic power with a minor increase in delay. The result outcomes are compared for accuracy with the notable design approaches that are accessible for both active and standby modes of operation

Subthreshold and gate leakage current analysis and reduction in VLSI circuits

CMOS technology has scaled aggressively over the past few decades in an effort to enhance functionality, speed and packing density per chip. As the feature sizes are scaling down to sub-100nm regime, leakage power is increasing significantly and is becoming the dominant component of the total power dissipation. Major contributors to the total leakage current in deep submicron regime are subthreshold and gate tunneling leakage currents. The leakage reduction techniques developed so far were mostly devoted to reducing subthreshold leakage. However, at sub-65nm feature sizes, gate leakage current grows faster and is expected to surpass subthreshold leakage current. In this work, an extensive analysis of the circuit level characteristics of subthreshold and gate leakage currents is performed at 45nm and 32nm feature sizes. The analysis provides several key observations on the interdependency of gate and subthreshold leakage currents. Based on these observations, a new leakage reduction technique is proposed that optimizes both the leakage currents. This technique identifies minimum leakage vectors for a given circuit based on the number of transistors in OFF state and their position in the stack. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is compared to most of the mainstream leakage reduction techniques by implementing them on ISCAS89 benchmark circuits. The proposed leakage reduction technique proved to be more effective in reducing gate leakage current than subthreshold leakage current. However, when combined with dual-threshold and variable-threshold CMOS techniques, substantial subthreshold leakage current reduction was also achieved. A total savings of 53% for subthreshold leakage current and 26% for gate leakage current are reported

Product assurance technology for custom LSI/VLSI electronics

The technology for obtaining custom integrated circuits from CMOS-bulk silicon foundries using a universal set of layout rules is presented. The technical efforts were guided by the requirement to develop a 3 micron CMOS test chip for the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES). This chip contains both analog and digital circuits. The development employed all the elements required to obtain custom circuits from silicon foundries, including circuit design, foundry interfacing, circuit test, and circuit qualification

Standby power consumption estimation by interacting leakage current mechanisms in nanoscaled CMOS digital circuits

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