An Ultra-Low Voltage Design Technique Based on Foundary Standard Cell Library

Based on a foundary standard cell library,an ultra-low voltage design technique is proposed for meeting the ultra-low power requirements of wireless sensor nodes.The criterion is applied to evaluate the stability of the SMIC 130 nm RVT library,and it turns out that the library can work functionally when the supply voltage is higher than 0.5V.Through re-characterizing the library at the low voltage,we design a low voltage FIR circuit.The postlayout simulation shows that the FIR can work well through the voltage range of 1.2Vto 0.5V,and the power consumption can decrease 7Xwhen the voltage drops from 1.2Vto 0.5V.