Implicit DC-DC downconversion through charge-recycling

• Published in: IEEE journal of solid-state circuits Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 846 - 852
• Main Authors: Rajapandian, S., Zheng Xu, Shepard, K.L.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.04.2005; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Active control; Applied sciences; Balancing; Charge; Circuit properties; Circuits; CMOS; Conversion; Dc-Dc conversion; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Digital circuits; Dynamic voltage scaling; Electric potential; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Electrons; Energy efficiency; Exact sciences and technology; Integrated circuits; Logic; power management; Power transistors; Pulse width modulation; Pulse width modulation converters; Regulators; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Voltage; Voltage control; Power consumption; Prototype; Complementary MOS technology; Voltage regulation; power management; Digital circuit; CMOS integrated circuits; Low-power electronics; Dc-Dc conversion; Voltage control
• ISSN: 0018-9200; 1558-173X
• DOI: 10.1109/JSSC.2004.842861

This paper describes an energy-efficient means to achieve on-chip dc-dc conversion for digital CMOS circuits. The approach uses balanced voltage islands running at fractions of the off-chip supply voltage. Charge "discarded" by one domain is "recycled" to supply energy for another. When the domains are ideally balanced, all the energy dissipated by electrons in "dropping" to lower potentials is used for active computation. We describe the design and measurement of a prototype system in a 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS process that provides active on-chip voltage regulation and controlled dc-dc conversion with this technique.