On-chip monitor design for tracking minimum energy point

• Main Author: Sheth, Pratik Chetan.
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54883
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Minimum energy consumption is the primary design constraint in numerous applications where battery or energy harvesting device is the main power source. Subthreshold operations for such circuits have been used for low performance requiring circuits and show significant energy savings. In subthreshold region, the energy dissipated in the system is not a linear function of the supply voltage, but instead the energy per operation versus the supply voltage curve has a single minimum or optimum point of operation. The theory behind this Minimum Energy Point occurrence as presented in literature is investigated and described. Further the MEP point changes with changes in load, temperature etc. To track these changes in the MEP, tracking loop is suggested in a state of the art literature and this loop is investigated and studied. The control circuit for such a loop is then implemented and simulated in Cadence. Further, some improvements to this loop are suggested and implemented in Cadence as a proof of concept.