Implementation of in-situ monitoring techniques for power reduction in smart sensors

Nowadays, smart sensors are widely used in a variety of application domains, such as telecommunication, health care, cars, mobile phones, smart cities. Because of limited battery capacity, low-power design is required for smart sensors. Low-voltage operation is a key leverage to reduce power consumption in smart sensors. However, uncertainties due to process, voltage and temperature variations or random fluctuations gain in relevance when operating in the near-threshold range. Hence, monitoring of the actual silicon behavior is crucial to lowering supply voltage while preserving reliable operation. An interrupt-based in-situ monitoring approach is proposed in this thesis. This approach uses an interrupt service routine to stimulate the critical paths on the chip. By monitoring the timing of the exercised paths, a warning signal is generated to steer the control of reliable supply voltage levels. This approach is developed, validated and applied on an ARM-based processor. Finally, a 10 mV supply voltage margin is achieved based on measurements in the near-threshold range. In addition, reliable operation is verified by running different self-checking codes over multiple dies while varying the environmental conditions.

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http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:721209c1-b10b-413b-ac08-91201c89ee23

Embargo date

2019-10-01

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Student theses

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master thesis

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