Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

A 194nW Energy-Performance-Aware loT SoC Employing a 5.2nW 92.6% Peak Efficiency Power Management Unit for System Performance Scaling, Fast DVFS and Energy Minimization

Conference · · 2022 IEEE International Solid- State Circuits Conference (ISSCC)

A self-powered IoT system-on-chip (SoC) reduces power to sub-μw and employs multiple power-management techniques to trade-off ultra-low power (ULP), higher performance, smaller energy harvester footprint, and longer operating lifetime. Minimum Energy Point Tracking (MEPT) [1]–[4] keeps an SoC operating at the minimum energy point (MEP) to enhance system lifetime. Previous sample-and-hold MEPT schemes need frequent voltage comparisons and a high-frequency clock that increases power [2]. Current-ratio-based MEPT relies on specialized CMOS technology for body-bias tuning [3]. A switched-capacitor-based MEPT can achieve energy minimization at a targeted performance [4], but it uses a 30MHz clock witμW power consumption and low power efficiency. For ULP IoT applications, SoCs need to have ultra-low quiescent power, high efficiency for energy delivery, performance scaling based on available energy, and energy minimization to increase system lifetime. In this work, we propose an ULP IoT SoC with a triple-mode power management unit (PMU) that integrates energy-performance scaling, event-driven fast DVFS, and MEPT features to improve the system energy efficiency, as shown in Fig. 13.8.1. This work achieves a minimum 194nW power consumption for the SoC and 5.2nW quiescent power for the PMU with a 92.6% peak efficiency and >10 4 dynamic range. The timing waveform in Fig. 13.8.1 (bottom), demonstrates the transition of the three modes including energy aware (EA), performance aware (PA), and MEPT based on event priority and input voltage level which reflects the energy availability. As such, the system energy consumption and performance could be well-balanced based on both the input and output conditions.

Research Organization:
University of Virginia
Sponsoring Organization:
U.S. Department of Energy
DOE Contract Number:
EE0008225
OSTI ID:
1860366
Journal Information:
2022 IEEE International Solid- State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), Journal Name: 2022 IEEE International Solid- State Circuits Conference (ISSCC)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

An 802pW 93% Peak Efficiency Buck Converter with 5.5×106 Dynamic Range Featuring Fast DVFS and Asynchronous Load-Transient Control
Journal Article · Mon Sep 13 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Proceedings of ESSCIRC (Online) · OSTI ID:1860365

An 85 nW IoT Node-Controlling SoC for MELs Power-Mode Management and Phantom Energy Reduction
Conference · Mon Oct 12 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) · OSTI ID:1860364

Ultralow-Power Receivers: Overcoming Battery Limitations to Facilitate Self-Powered Operation
Journal Article · Thu Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine · OSTI ID:2008478