Extreme Power-Constrained Integrated Circuit Design.

Abstract

Recently sensing systems of cubic millimeter scale have gained significant attention since they may be embedded virtually anywhere. For developing these systems, there are two challenging requirements; 1) long lifetime for minimal maintenance and 2) small volume for less invasive deployments. Ultra low power circuits are key enablers for these requirements since they ensure longer lifetime and minimize the volume of power sources, which often occupy the dominant portion of system volume. This thesis presents new circuit and architecture design approaches to overcome voltage scaling challenges and realize cubic millimeter sensing systems. Our proposed approaches yield record-setting energy efficiencies with numerous silicon demonstration vehicles to prove their efficacy.