Low-Energy Pipelined Multiple-Valued Current-Mode Circuit Based on Current-Level Control Technique

摘要

A multiple-valued current-mode (MVCM) circuit with a current-level control technique is proposed for application to low-energy pipelined systems. The current-control block embedded in each pipeline stage automatically determines the minimum current bias that guarantees correct logic operations within a cycle time by using critical path replicas and minimizes the amount of current flow in the datapath block. The use of this current-level control technique enables the minimization of power dissipation while maintaining the operating frequency. The proposed circuit is applied to a pipelined MVCM multiplier, and its effectiveness is confirmed by carrying out an HSPICE simulation in 0.13um CMOS technology. In addition, the relationship between the current-level control granularity and the rate of performance improvement is confirmed. As compared to a conventional MVCM implementation, the MVCM multiplier with an 8-level current-control scheme achieves a power reduction of 65.1% at an operating frequency of 100 MHz and 26.5% at 500 MHz with an area overhead of 6.88%.