Robust low-power digital circuit design in nano-CMOS technologies

Device scaling has resulted in large scale integrated, high performance, low-power, and low cost systems. However the move towards sub-100 nm technology nodes has increased variability in device characteristics due to large process variations. Variability has severe implications on digital circuit design by causing timing uncertainties in combinational circuits, degrading yield and reliability of memory elements, and increasing power density due to slow scaling of supply voltage. Conventional design methods add large pessimistic safety margins to mitigate increased variability, however, they incur large power and performance loss as the combination of worst cases occurs very rarely. In-situ monitoring of timing failures provides an opportunity to dynamically tune safety margins in proportion to on-chip variability that can significantly minimize power and performance losses. We demonstrated by simulations two delay sensor designs to detect timing failures in advance that can be coupled with different compensation techniques such as voltage scaling, body biasing, or frequency scaling to avoid actual timing failures. Our simulation results using 45 nm and 32 nm technology BSIM4 models indicate significant reduction in total power consumption under temperature and statistical variations. Future work involves using dual sensing to avoid useless voltage scaling that incurs a speed loss. SRAM cache is the first victim of increased process variations that requires handcrafted design to meet area, power, and performance requirements. We have proposed novel 6 transistors (6T), 7 transistors (7T), and 8 transistors (8T)-SRAM cells that enable variability tolerant and low-power SRAM cache designs. Increased sense-amplifier offset voltage due to device mismatch arising from high variability increases delay and power consumption of SRAM design. We have proposed two novel design techniques to reduce offset voltage dependent delays providing a high speed low-power SRAM design. Increasing leakage currents in nano-CMOS technologies pose a major challenge to a low-power reliable design. We have investigated novel segmented supply voltage architecture to reduce leakage power of the SRAM caches since they occupy bulk of the total chip area and power. Future work involves developing leakage reduction methods for the combination logic designs including SRAM peripherals

Low Power Low Modulation Index Ask Demodulator Design for RFID Applications

In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT) there is a tremendous increase in portable wireless devices utilized in our day to day working. One such example is the Radio Frequency Identification tag. The primary challenge in designing passive RFID tags is reliable functionality over extreme temperature and environmental conditions with low power operation. An important component of the RFID tag architecture is the demodulator which is tasked with interpreting the incoming data and extracting the reference clock for the Phase Locked Loop. A novel ASK demodulator architecture that functions across a temperature range of -25? to 125? is designed, analyzed and optimized for the worst and best case semiconductor process variations. The incoming RF frequency is selected as 900MHz based on the EPC GEN2 protocol and the baseband signal is set at 450 KHz with a modulation index of 5%. MOS transistor operation and variability in semiconductor processes is explored and a better understanding of how these concepts effect and shape our design decisions is established. A design objective is setup and steps to achieve these design objectives are presented. The design of the ASK demodulator is completed with the help of the Cadence Virtuoso tool, utilizing the IBM 0.18µm (CMOS 7RF) process. In order to test our design we have used the Monte Carlo analysis and all the significant DC parameters of the design have been tested for 10,000 samples owing to the high variability associated with modern semiconductor processes. On the other hand Monte Carlo simulations for the transient simulations have been done for 30 samples in accordance with the Central Limit Theorem. The results of the design are compared with other ASK RFID demodulator designs in the past and a comparison is made by utilizing a Figure of Merit from literature. The design is among the best ASK demodulator designs found in literature. Throughout this effort there is emphasis on MOS transistor operation and variations in semiconductor processes. The design takes all pertinent challenges such as extreme temperature, environment conditions and the reliability of the design. Through this work an attempt is made to try and simplify the work of the reader and expose them to the challenges associated with ASK demodulator design.Electrical Engineerin

High-Speed and Low-Energy On-Chip Communication Circuits.

Continuous technology scaling sharply reduces transistor delays, while fixed-length global wire delays have increased due to less wiring pitch with higher resistance and coupling capacitance. Due to this ever growing gap, long on-chip interconnects pose well-known latency, bandwidth, and energy challenges to high-performance VLSI systems. Repeaters effectively mitigate wire RC effects but do little to improve their energy costs. Moreover, the increased complexity and high level of integration requires higher wire densities, worsening crosstalk noise and power consumption of conventionally repeated interconnects. Such increasing concerns in global on-chip wires motivate circuits to improve wire performance and energy while reducing the number of repeaters. This work presents circuit techniques and investigation for high-performance and energy-efficient on-chip communication in the aspects of encoding, data compression, self-timed current injection, signal pre-emphasis, low-swing signaling, and technology mapping. The improved bus designs also consider the constraints of robust operation and performance/energy gains across process corners and design space. Measurement results from 5mm links on 65nm and 90nm prototype chips validate 2.5-3X improvement in energy-delay product.Ph.D.Electrical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75800/1/jseo_1.pd

Variability-Aware Design of Static Random Access Memory Bit-Cell

The increasing integration of functional blocks in today's integrated circuit designs necessitates a large embedded memory for data manipulation and storage. The most often used embedded memory is the Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), with a six transistor memory bit-cell. Currently, memories occupy more than 50% of the chip area and this percentage is only expected to increase in future. Therefore, for the silicon vendors, it is critical that the memory units yield well, to enable an overall high yield of the chip. The increasing memory density is accompanied by aggressive scaling of the transistor dimensions in the SRAM. Together, these two developments make SRAMs increasingly susceptible to process-parameter variations. As a result, in the current nanometer regime, statistical methods for the design of the SRAM array are pivotal to achieve satisfactory levels of silicon predictability. In this work, a method for the statistical design of the SRAM bit-cell is proposed. Not only does it provide a high yield, but also meets the specifications for the design constraints of stability, successful write, performance, leakage and area. The method consists of an optimization framework, which derives the optimal design parameters; i.e., the widths and lengths of the bit-cell transistors, which provide maximum immunity to the variations in the transistor's geometry and intrinsic threshold voltage fluctuations. The method is employed to obtain optimal designs in the 65nm, 45nm and 32nm technologies for different set of specifications. The optimality of the resultant designs is verified. The resultant optimal bit-cell designs in the 65nm, 45nm and 32nm technologies are analyzed to study the SRAM area and yield trade-offs associated with technology scaling. In order to achieve 50% scaling of the bit-cell area, at every technology node, two ways are proposed. The resultant designs are further investigated to understand, which mode of failure in the bit-cell becomes more dominant with technology scaling. In addition, the impact of voltage scaling on the bit-cell designs is also studied

Memristor-based design solutions for mitigating parametric variations in IoT applications

PhD ThesisRapid advancement of the internet of things (IoT) is predicated by two important factors of the electronic technology, namely device size and energy-efficiency. With smaller size comes the problem of process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variations of delays which are the key operational parameters of devices. Parametric variability is also an obstacle on the way to allowing devices to work in systems with unpredictable power sources, such as those powered by energy-harvesters. Designers tackle these problems holistically by developing new techniques such as asynchronous logic, where mechanisms such as matching delays are widely used to adapt to delay variations. To mitigate energy efficiency and power interruption issues the matching delays need to be ideally retained in a non-volatile storage. Meanwhile, a resistive memory called memristor becomes a promising component for power-restricted applications owing to its inherent non-volatility. While providing non-volatility, the use of memristor in delay matching incurs some power overheads. This creates the first challenge on the way of introducing memristors into IoT devices for the delay matching. Another important factor affecting the use of memristors in IoT devices is the dependence of the memristor value on temperature. For example, a memristance decoder used in the memristor-based components must be able to correct the read data without incurring significant overheads on the overall system. This creates the second challenge for overcoming the temperature effect in memristance decoding process. In this research, we propose methods for improving PVT tolerance and energy characteristics of IoT devices from the perspective of above two main challenges: (i) utilising memristor to enhance the energy efficiency of the delay element (DE), and (ii) improving the temperature awareness and energy robustness of the memristance decoder. For memristor-based delay element (MemDE), we applied a memristor between two inverters to vary the path resistance, which determines the RC delay. This allows power saving due to the low number of switching components and the absence of external delay storage. We also investigate a solution for avoiding the unintended tuning (UT) and a timing model to estimate the proper pulse width for memristance tuning. The simulation results based on UMC 180nm technology and VTEAM model show the MemDE can provide the delay between 0.55ns and 1.44ns which is compatible to the 4-bit multiplexerbased delay element (MuxDE) in the same technology while consuming thirteen times less power. The key contribution within (i) is the development of low-power MemDE to mitigate the timing mismatch caused by PVT variations. To estimate the temperature effect on memristance, we develop an empirical temperature model which fits both titanium dioxide and silver chalcogenide memristors. The temperature experiments are conducted using the latter device, and the results confirm the validity of the proposed model with the accuracy R-squared >88%. The memristance decoder is designed to deliver two key advantages. Firstly, the temperature model is integrated into the VTEAM model to enable the temperature compensation. Secondly, it supports resolution scalability to match the energy budget. The simulation results of the 2-bit decoder based on UMC 65nm technology show the energy can be varied between 49fJ and 98fJ. This is the second major contribution to address the challenge (ii). This thesis gives future research directions into an in-depth study of the memristive electronics as a variation-robust energy-efficient design paradigm and its impact on developing future IoT applications.sponsored by the Royal Thai Governmen

Integration of Ferroelectric HfO2 onto a III-V Nanowire Platform

The discovery of ferroelectricity in CMOS-compatible oxides, such as doped hafnium oxide, has opened new possibilities for electronics by reviving the use of ferroelectric implementations on modern technology platforms. This thesis presents the ground-up integration of ferroelectric HfO2 on a thermally sensitive III-V nanowire platform leading to the successful implementation of ferroelectric transistors (FeFETs), tunnel junctions (FTJs), and varactors for mm-wave applications. As ferroelectric HfO2 on III-V semiconductors is a nascent technology, a special emphasis is put on the fundamental integration issues and the various engineering challenges facing the technology.The fabrication of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors is treated as well as the measurement methods developed to investigate the interfacial quality to the narrow bandgap III-V materials using both electrical and operando synchrotron light source techniques. After optimizing both the films and the top electrode, the gate stack is integrated onto vertical InAs nanowires on Si in order to successfully implement FeFETs. Their performance and reliability can be explained from the deeper physical understanding obtained from the capacitor structures.By introducing an InAs/(In)GaAsSb/GaSb heterostructure in the nanowire, a ferroelectric tunnel field effect transistor (ferro-TFET) is fabricated. Based on the ultra-short effective channel created by the band-to-band tunneling process, the localized potential variations induced by single ultra-scaled ferroelectric domains and individual defects are sensed and investigated. By intentionally introducing a gate-source overlap in the ferro-TFET, a non-volatile reconfigurable single-transistor solution for modulating an input signal with diverse modes including signal transmission, phase shift, frequency doubling, and mixing is implemented.Finally, by fabricating scaled ferroelectric MOS capacitors in the front-end with a dedicated and adopted RF and mm-wave backend-of-line (BEOL) implementation, the ferroelectric behavior is captured at RF and mm-wave frequencies

Etude des transistors MOSFET à barrière Schottky, à canal Silicium et Germanium sur couches minces

Until the early 2000’s Dennard’s scaling rules at the transistor level have enabled to achieve a performance gain while still preserving the basic structure of the MOSFET building block from one generation to the next. However, this conservative approach has already reached its limits as shown by the introduction of channel stressors for the sub-130 nm technological nodes, and later high-k/metal gate stacks for the sub-65 nm nodes. Despite the introduction of high-k gate dielectrics, constraints in terms of gate leakage and reliability have been delaying the diminution of the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT). Concurrently, lowering the supply voltage (VDD) has become a critical necessity to reduce both the active and passive power density in integrated circuits. Hence the challenge: how to keep decreasing both gate length and supply voltage faster than the EOT without losing in terms of ON-state/OFF-state performance trade-off? Several solutions can be proposed aiming at solving this conundrum for nanoscale transistors, with architectures in rupture with the plain old Silicon-based MOSFET with doped Source and Drain invented in 1960. One approach consists in achieving an ION increase while keeping IOFF (and Vth) mostly unchanged. Specifically, two options are considered in detail in this manuscript through a review of their respective historical motivations, state-of-the-art results as well as remaining fundamental (and technological) challenges: i/ the reduction of the extrinsic parasitic resistance through the implementation of metallic Source and Drain (Schottky Barrier FET architecture); ii/ the reduction of the intrinsic channel resistance through the implementation of Germanium-based mobility boosters (Ge CMOS, compressively-strained SiGe channels, n-sSi/p-sSiGe Dual Channel co-integration). In particular, we study the case of thin films on insulator (SOI, SiGeOI, GeOI substrates), a choice justified by: the preservation of the electrostatic integrity for the targeted sub-22nm nodes; the limitation of ambipolar leakage in SBFETs; the limitation of junction leakage in (low-bandgap) Ge-based FETs. Finally, we show why, and under which conditions the association of the SBFET architecture with a Ge-based channel could be potentially advantageous with respect to conventional Si CMOS.Jusqu’au début des années 2000, les règles de scaling de Dennard ont permis de réaliser des gains en performance tout en conservant la structure de la brique de base transistor d’une génération technologique à la suivante. Cependant, cette approche conservatrice a d’ores et déjà atteint ses limites, comme en témoigne l’introduction de la contrainte mécanique pour les générations sub-130nm, et les empilements de grille métal/high-k pour les nœuds sub-65nm. Malgré l’introduction de diélectriques à forte permittivité, des limites en termes de courants de fuite de grille et de fiabilité ont ralenti la diminution de l’épaisseur équivalente d’oxyde (EOT). De façon concommitante, la diminution de la tension d’alimentation (VDD) est devenue une priorité afin de réduire la densité de puissance dissipée dans les circuits intégrés. D’où le défi actuel: comment continuer de réduire à la fois la longueur de grille et la tension d’alimentation plus rapidement que l’EOT sans pour autant dégrader le rapport de performances aux états passant et bloqué (ON et OFF) ? Diverses solutions peuvent être proposées, passant par des architectures s’éloignant du MOSFET conventionnel à canal Si avec source et drain dopés tel que défini en 1960. Une approche consiste en réaliser une augmentation du courant passant (ION) tout en laissant le courant à l’état bloqué (IOFF) et la tension de seuil (Vth) inchangés. Concrètement, deux options sont considérées en détail dans ce manuscrit à travers une revue de leurs motivations historiques respectives, les résultats de l’état de l’art ainsi que les obstacles (fondamentaux et technologiques) à leur mise en œuvre : i/ la réduction de la résistance parasite extrinsèque par l’introduction de source et drain métalliques (architecture transistor à barrière Schottky) ; ii/ la réduction de la résistance de canal intrinsèque par l’introduction de matériaux à haute mobilité à base de Germanium (CMOS Ge, canaux SiGe en contrainte compressive, co-intégration Dual Channel n-sSi/p-sSiGe). En particulier, nous étudions le cas de couches minces sur isolant (substrats SOI, SiGeOI, GeOI), un choix motivé par: la préservation de l’intégrité électrostatique pour les nœuds technologiques sub-22nm; la limitation du courant de fuite ambipolaire dans les SBFETs; la limitation du courant de fuites de jonctions dans les MOSFETs à base de Ge (qui est un matériau à faible bandgap). Enfin, nous montrons pourquoi et dans quelles conditions l’association d’une architecture SBFET et d’un canal à base de Germanium peut être avantageuse vis-à-vis du CMOS Silicium conventionnel

Power management systems based on switched-capacitor DC-DC converter for low-power wearable applications

The highly efficient ultra-low-power management unit is essential in powering low-power wearable electronics. Such devices are powered by a single input source, either by a battery or with the help of a renewable energy source. Thus, there is a demand for an energy conversion unit, in this case, a DC-DC converter, which can perform either step-up or step-down conversions to provide the required voltage at the load. Energy scavenging with a boost converter is an intriguing choice since it removes the necessity of bulky batteries and considerably extends the battery life. Wearable devices are typically powered by a monolithic battery. The commonly available battery such as Alkaline or Lithium-ion, degrade over time due to their life spans as it is limited by the number of charge cycles- which depend highly on the environmental and loading condition. Thus, once it reaches the maximum number of life cycles, the battery needs to be replaced. The operation of the wearable devices is limited by usable duration, which depends on the energy density of the battery. Once the stored energy is depleted, the operation of wearable devices is also affected, and hence it needs to be recharged. The energy harvesters- which gather the available energy from the surroundings, however, have no limitation on operating life. The application can become battery-less given that harvestable energy is sufficiently powering the low-power devices. Although the energy harvester may not completely replace the battery source, it ensures the maximum duration of use and assists to become autonomous and self-sustain devices. The photovoltaic (PV) cell is a promising candidate as a hypothetical input supply source among the energy harvesters due to its smaller area and high power density over other harvesters. Solar energy use PV harvester can convert ambient light energy into electrical energy and keep it in the storage device. The harvested output of PV cannot directly connect to wearable loads for two main reasons. Depending on the incoming light, the harvested current result in varying open-circuit voltage. It requires the power management circuit to deal with unregulated input variation. Second, depending on the PV cell's material type and an effective area, the I-V characteristic's performance varies, resulting in a variation of the output power. There are several works of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods that allow the solar energy harvester to achieve optimal harvested power. Therefore, the harvested power depends on the size and usually small area cell is sufficient for micro-watt loads low-powered applications. The available harvested voltage, however, is generally very low-voltage range between 0.4-0.6 V. The voltage ratings of electronics in standard wearable applications operate in 1.8-3 V voltages as described in introduction’s application example section. It is higher than the supply source can offer. The overcome the mismatch voltage between source and supply circuit, a DC-DC boost converter is necessary. The switch-mode converters are favoured over the linear converters due to their highly efficient and small area overhead. The inductive converter in the switch-mode converter is common due to its high-efficiency performance. However, the integration of the inductor in the miniaturised integrated on-chip design tends to be bulky. Therefore, the switched-capacitor approach DC-DC converters will be explored in this research. In the switched-capacitor converter universe, there is plenty of work for single-output designs for various topologies. Most converters are reconfigurable to the different DC voltage levels apart from Dickson and cross-coupled charge pump topologies due to their boosting power stage architecture through a number of stages. However, existing multi-output converters are limited to the fixed gain ratio. This work explores the reconfigurable dual-output converter with adjustable gain to compromise the research gap. The thesis's primary focus is to present the inductor-less, switched-capacitor-based DC-DC converter power management system (PMS) supplied by a varying input of PV energy harvester input source. The PMS should deliver highly efficient regulated voltage conversion ratio (VCR) outputs to low-power wearable electronic devices that constitute multi-function building blocks

Active pixel sensors for breast biopsy analysis using x-ray diffraction.

Breast cancer diagnosis currently requires biopsy samples to be analysed by a histopathologist a time consuming, highly specialised process. X-ray diffraction is a quantitative technique that can distinguish between healthy and diseased breast biopsy samples using the change in proportions of fat and fibrous tissue that occurs when cancer invades. A semi-automated breast biopsy analysis system based on X-ray diffraction could yield a faster patient diagnosis. Recording X-ray diffraction patterns is a challenging task needing low noise, large area, and wide dynamic range detectors. Scientific complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) Active Pixel Sensors will soon be able to meet all of these demands in a single device. Characterization of two novel Active Pixel Sensors that advance towards an ideal X-ray diffraction detector is presented. 'Vanilla' exhibits a low read noise of 55e r.m.s. and high quantum efficiency of up to 70% so was selected for the design and implementation of the first 'Active Pixel X-ray Diffraction' (APXRD) system. Following on from Vanilla, the 'Large Area Sensor' (LAS) covered an area of over 29cm2 and had a wide dynamic range of over 95dB. The first linear systems model of an Active Pixel Flat Panel Imager (scintillator coupled APS) was formulated in the design of the APXRD system, to select filters to narrow the spectral width of the X-ray beam and predict the recorded scatter intensity. Following system implementation, scatter signatures were recorded for numerous breast tissue equivalent samples. A multivariate analysis model calibrated with these was able to predict the percentage fat content of an 'unknown' sample to within 3% a very promising result. The width of the filtered polychromatic X-ray spectrum had only a minor influence on the APXRD scatter signatures indicating that the system preserves all relevant structural information