Gate Leakage Reduction by Clocked Power Supply of Adiabatic Logic Circuits

Losses due to gate-leakage-currents become more dominant in new technologies as gate leakage currents increase exponentially with decreasing gate oxide thickness. The most promising Adiabatic Logic (AL) families use a clocked power supply with four states. Hence, the full <i>V</i>_<i>DD</i> voltage drops over an AL gate only for a quarter of the clock cycle, causing a full gate leakage only for a quarter of the clock period. The rising and falling ramps of the clocked power supply lead to an additional energy consumption by gate leakage. This energy is smaller than the fraction caused by the constant <i>V</i>_<i>DD</i> drop, because the gate leakage exponentially depends on the voltage across the oxide. To obtain smaller energy consumption, Improved Adiabatic Logic (IAL) has been introduced. IAL swaps all n- and p-channel transistors. The logic blocks are built of p-channel devices which show gate tunneling currents significantly smaller than in n-channel devices. Using IAL instead of conventional AL allows an additional reduction of the energy consumption caused by gate leakage. Simulations based on a 90nm CMOS process show a lowering in gate leakage energy consumption for AL by a factor of 1.5 compared to static CMOS. For IAL the factor is up to 4. The achievable reduction varies depending on the considered AL family and the complexity of the gate

Improving the positive feedback adiabatic logic familiy

Positive Feedback Adiabatic Logic (PFAL) shows the lowest energy dissipation among adiabatic logic families based on cross-coupled transistors, due to the reduction of both adiabatic and non-adiabatic losses. The dissipation primarily depends on the resistance of the charging path, which consists of a single p-channel MOSFET during the recovery phase. In this paper, a new logic family called Improved PFAL (IPFAL) is proposed, where all n- and pchannel devices are swapped so that the charge can be recovered through an n-channel MOSFET. This allows to decrease the resistance of the charging path up to a factor of 2, and it enables a significant reduction of the energy dissipation. Simulations based on a 0.13µm CMOS process confirm the improvements in terms of power consumption over a large frequency range. However, the same simple design rule, which enables in PFAL an additional reduction of the dissipation by optimal transistor sizing, does not apply to IPFAL. Therefore, the influence of several sources of dissipation for a generic IPFAL gate is illustrated and discussed, in order to lower the power consumption and achieve better performance

Adiabatic circuits: converter for static CMOS signals

Ultra low power applications can take great advantages from adiabatic circuitry. In this technique a multiphase system is used which consists ideally of trapezoidal voltage signals. The input signals to be processed will often come from a function block realized in static CMOS. The static rectangular signals must be converted for the oscillating multiphase system of the adiabatic circuitry. This work shows how to convert the input signals to the proposed pulse form which is synchronized to the appropriate supply voltage. By means of adder structures designed for a 0.13µm technology in a 4-phase system there will be demonstrated, which additional circuits are necessary for the conversion. It must be taken into account whether the data arrive in parallel or serial form. Parallel data are all in one phase and therefore it is advantageous to use an adder structure with a proper input stage, e.g. a Carry Lookahead Adder (CLA). With a serial input stage it is possible to read and to process four signals during one cycle due to the adiabatic 4-phase system. Therefore input signals with a frequency four times higher than the adiabatic clock frequency can be used. This reduces the disadvantage of the slow clock period typical for adiabatic circuits. By means of an 8 bit Ripple Carry Adder (8 bit RCA) the serial reading will be introduced. If the word width is larger than 4 bits the word can be divided in 4 bit words which are processed in parallel. This is the most efficient way to minimize the number of input lines and pads. At the same time a high throughput is achieved

Four-phase power clock generator for adiabatic logic circuits

A circuit for a four-phase trapezoidal power clock generator for adiabatic logic circuits realised with a double-well 0.25 um CMOS technology and extemal inductors is proposed. The circuit, at a frequency of 7 MHz which is within the optimum frequency range for adiabatic circuits realised with 0.25 um CMOS technology, has a conversion efficiency higher than 80%, and is robust with respect to parameter variations