A 7nm Leakage-Current-Supply Circuit for LDO Dropout Voltage Reduction

摘要

A 7nm leakage-current-supply (LCS) circuit tracks leakage across process and temperature variations and controls PFET block-head switches (BHS) to supply the slow-changing leakage current while an analog low-dropout (LDO) voltage regulator supplies the fast-changing dynamic current to reduce the LDO maximum current demand (I_MAX) and minimum dropout voltage (V_DO,MIN). Measurements demonstrate a 70mV (44%) V_DO,MIN reduction, enabling 14-22% power savings.