Supply and threshold voltage optimization for low power design

Abstract

Low power supply voltages are used to effectively design low power circuits. If the threshold voltages are reduced, it is possible to maintain good performance at these lower voltages. Choosing the optimum supply and threshold voltages for low power design is discussed. Parameter tolerances and short channel effects in the devices are studied, and circuit simulations are carried out to obtain accurate speed and power information. The aim of these optimizations are to take a given circuit and determine the supply voltage and threshold voltage that will result in minimum dissipation for that circuit. The nominal gate length is considered as an optimization parameter because the statistical variation of the threshold voltage depends on the gate length.