Leakage reduction techniques
Mohammad Sharifkhani
Introduction
• Leakage current is important in
– Standby mode: no T. activity
– Active mode: Static units: (e.g., SRAM cells)
– Active mode: Non-critical path logics
• It is the current that does not do anything
for us
The lower the better
Power components (revisit)
• Speed
• Energy  Battery lifetime
• Instantaneous power  Package, cooling
The leakage power is a function of Vth, VDD and transistor size.
Power Down
• Complexity:
– Cellular phone: checks
base-station every sec. in
cell waiting mode
partitioning the design
• Floating
output
nodes
between
0.7V/0
– High
leakage in
subsequent
stage 
pull-downer
 area,
power
Power Down
• 100uSec settle time for power up.
Windows-CE demands 1uSec
• On board level:
– Turn off: All input signals to a chip  0;
otherwise short through ESD. Then turn off
chip VDD
– Turn on: Reverse order. Except for the active
low inputs which may disrupt the operation
(e.g., CE, OE)
– Un-conventional power up/down methodology
Power Down
• High Vth Sleep T.
– Multi-Threshold MTCMOS
• Both VDD and Virtual
VDD  Area
• Sizing Sleep T.:
– Speed: virtual VDD bounce
 Large enough
– Discharge pattern  virtual
VDD bounce  Delay
– VDD↓  Larger W/L; @
VDD=0.7 super cut-off T.
SCCMOS
Power Down
• Example Input Pattern: 8x8 Multiplier speed
penalty <5%
– Second pattern  W/L=60, First pattern  W/L=170
• Right pattern is hard to find
– In consistent with conventional CMOS design
Power Down
• High Vt Sleep T.
– Does not operate at Vdd<0.7V
• Super cut-off transistor (SCCMOS)
– Instead of high-Vt transistor, a regular
transistors is used for Sleep T.
– The gate of the Sleep T. is connected to
Vdd+0.4V during cut-off
– Operates at lower voltages (<0.7V)
Layout
Standard Cell implementation
Multiple Vt
• Multiple Vt is a common standard today
• It can be used in
– Static CMOS
– Domino
• It can be used as
– In block level (Sleep T.)
– Circuit level
Dual Vt for Domino
Preserving State
• Virtual supply collapse in sleep mode
will cause the loss of state in registers
• Putting the registers at nominal VDD
would preserve the state
– These registers leak
• Can lower VDD in sleep
– Some impact on robustness, noise and SEU
immunity
Low-leakage FF w. Sleep
High Vt
Stacking
Stacking
Stacking
3 Challenges
• High standby current in low Vth
• IDDQ testing failure
• Degradation of worst
case speed due to Vth
variation @ low Vth
– Vth scaling to keep delay
constant: for 3V => 2V
change 25% Vth
reduction is needed
Vth controlling
• Solves all three problems together
– Variable threshold CMOS (VTCMOS)
– Can be used as a low-voltage (low active power)
method
• Two main blocks:
– Leakage current monitor (LCM)
– Self substrate bias (SSB)
• Two major schemes:
– Self-adjusting threshold voltage (SAT)
– Standby Power Reduction (SPR)
VTCMOS
• The body of the T. is the key controlling
knob.
– All properties of CMOS is carried over
(unlike Power Down) 
– Much smaller current flows through
Substrate. 
– Slow turn off, Fast turn on 
• <0.1um Sec. good for Windows-CE
Self-Adjusting Threshold-Voltage
Scheme (SATS)
SATS Experimental Results
VTCMOS
VTCMOS (LCM+SSB)
• Two sets of circuits:
– Feedback control of SSB, LCM
– Switch between Standby and Active
• LCM controls SSB when ILeak and IRef don’t
match
• Controls the average Vth on the chip
VTCMOS (LCM+SSB)
• SSB is turned on and off intermittently and
sets Vth
– Real time and process independent
• LCM design criteria
• Large ILCM  High power
• Too small ILCM  slows LCM response speed; Vth
unevenness and longer periods of Vth control hence
error
VTCMOS (LCM+SSB)
• Typical values:
– ILCM = 1uA, when ILeakage chip =
1mA, XLCM =0.1%.
– Given Vb=0.2V and S (the slope of
leakage current)= 0.1V/Dec
–  W LCM T. = 0.001% of W leakage, chip
• Design of Vb
– W1,2 @ subthreshold
VTCMOS (LCM+SSB)
Substitution in the previous equation yields:
• Hence:
– XLCM set by transistor ration; independent of
VDD, Temp., process variation 
– Consider deriving Vb using a resistive V.
divider:
• Dependency on all above 
– @ corners X does not vary more than 15% 
sufficient tolerance to keep Vth in check 
VTCMOS (SPR)
• There is an Standby Signal
• Active: M1 on VBB:VSS
• Standby: M1 off
– First: D1 off (N2 turns on M1)
– SSB pumps out current (N2 v.
drops)… until M1 turns off
– D1 only turn on (SSB connected
to VBB) when N2<-0.7V (M1 is
OFF)
– When D1 is on; SSB pulls down
VBBn
– M3?
– M3 prevents M2 from over
voltage (drain of M2 < VSS+Vth)
VTCMOS (SPR)
• Going back to Active:
–
–
–
–
M2 turns on (St’by low)
LCM, SSB disabled
N2 charges up through M2, M3
M1 turns on
• Over voltage on M1 gate 
• Reliability
– D2-4 is to solve it 
• Clamp: VGS <1.8V (N2 v.
restricted)
– When VBB is VSS –Vth:
NMOS cuts the clamp; M1 gate
jump to VDD
VTCMOS (Performance/Penalty)
• Vth controllability
– Sample: 40 chips
• Some with Vth=0.15
• Some with Vth=0.05
• Two gray distributions
– Each: 3 scenario
• Vth conv.
• Vth active mode
• Vth standby mode
VTCMOS (Performance/Penalty)
• Standard deviation↓
– +/- 0.1V  +/-0.05V
– Raise average Vth to
0.25 @Stby
• Temp. Dependency
Reduction ↓
– Mobility ↓ as T ↑
– 2mV/oC  0.7mV/oC
VTCMOS (Temp.)
• @ Sub 1V, Vth is small (speed)
– Leakage current may dominate
– T↑ , I↑  T↑ , I↑ : Positive feedback
– A leakage monitor is necessary
VTCMOS (Power/Area)
• IVTCMOS = ISSB + ILCM
– ISSB independent of
switching activity only
a function of impact
ionization (VDD and W
chip) ISSB can be
1% of total power;
• Active: I pwell very
small (<0.1% of total
power)
– ILCM must be large
enough (3uA) (VBB
control)
VTCMOS (Power/Area)
• Energy consumption due to substrate V.
variation
– 5nF for 10mm2; 3V voltage variation 
0.05uJoul
– Suppose every 25mSec  2uW (Good only if
not very frequent)
• Area penalty
– VTCMOS 1%
– Separation of substrates 6% (substrate
contacts)
Substrate noise
• Variation of the VBB can influence the
substrate noise
– Noise affecting the SRAM stability
– Noise affecting the jitter
• Same substrate for a DLL and an SRAM
• SRAM shmoo plot  no significant
differnce
• DLL jitter  almost the same
– In inverter chain only one inverter is operating
VTCMOS (within die Vth var.)
• In deep submicron, Vth is a VDrain than
the body, especially for shorter devices
• Shorter devices small Vth, less affected by
VTCMOS  remain small Vth
• Longer devices higher Vth, affected more
by VTCMOS
– Vth variation increases
VTCMOS (within die Vth var.)
• Measurement: true
leakage current for a
given nominal Vth
• Note: the leakage
controlled pretty well
• The variance of I
leakage is not too
much
– Leakage is an
exponential function of
Vth  Vth variation
reflected in leakage
– The std of leakage is not
increased  Vth
variation is negligible
Inter-die variation
Inter-die variation with ABB
Experimental Results
Experimental Results
Design example I
• TX3900
– 32bit RISC
– Variable Supply (VS) DC-DC
converter
– Vth control (SAT+SPR)
– Placed at the corners
Design Example I
• Measurement
– 1.3V @10MHz
– 1.9V @40MHz
– 20mW @ DC-DC converter
(85% efficiency)
• @ 20MHz
– Conv. CMOS: 150 MIPS/W
– VTCMOS: 480 MIPS/W
Design Example II
• SPR+SAT
• Distributed supply
switches