A 210mV 5MHz Variation-Resilient Near-Threshold JPEG Encoder in 40nm CMOS

📋 论文概要

该论文提出了一种在40nm CMOS工艺中实现的近阈值JPEG编码器，能够在210mV超低电压下以5MHz频率工作。通过设计变化鲁棒的电路技术，解决了近阈值区域因工艺差异导致的延迟增加、泄漏路径和敏感性等问题，实现了高能效与可靠性的平衡。

💡 主要创新点

• 提出了一种针对近阈值电压优化的变化鲁棒电路设计方法，有效缓解了40nm工艺下的工艺变异性影响。
• 首次在210mV电压下实现了5MHz工作频率的JPEG编码器，显著降低了功耗。
• 通过专用架构和电路技术，在超低电压下保持了编码器的功能正确性和性能稳定性。

🏷 关键词

📄 原文摘要

Operating circuits in the near-threshold region enables large energy savings. However, such circuits also pose many challenges, such as increased delay, unwanted leakage paths and high sensitivity to variations. Working in advanced nanometer CMOS technologies compromises the robustness of circuits even more due to the increased variability. Nonetheless, these technologies offer higher operating frequencies for ultra-low-voltage circuits. Transitioning to smaller technologies is attractive for digital near-threshold circuits, provided that the impact of the increased variability can be mitigated. Few prior works have considered the design of variation-resilient ultra-low-voltage circuits in CMOS technologies smaller than 65nm. The aim of this work is to design a large system that advances the state-of-the-art by not only reaching very low energy consumption, but also clock frequencies of tens of MHz, while providing high

👥 作者与机构

Nele Reynders, Wim Dehaene

KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium