A Wide-Range Static Current-Free Current Mirror-Based LS with Logic Error Detection for Near-Threshold Operation

Hanwool Jeong; Tae Hyun Kim; Chang Nam Park; Hoonki Kim; Taejoong Song; Seong Ook Jung

doi:10.1109/JSSC.2020.3014954

A Wide-Range Static Current-Free Current Mirror-Based LS with Logic Error Detection for Near-Threshold Operation

Hanwool Jeong, Tae Hyun Kim, Chang Nam Park, Hoonki Kim, Taejoong Song, Seong Ook Jung

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We have proposed a current mirror-based level shifter (LS) with a logic error detection (CMLS-LED), which is capable of converting a near-threshold signal to a super-threshold signal. The proposed CMLS-LED resolves the current contention problem observed in the conventional cross-coupled pFET-based LS (CPLS) by using the current mirror and removes the static current in the conventional current mirror LS with adopting the feedback pFET controlled by the output node. Compared with Wilson's current mirror-based LS (WCMLS), CMLS-LED offers an enhanced speed by avoiding the threshold voltage drop of the feedback pFET and is free from the stability issue due to an incomplete output swing. Measurement results obtained from the test chip fabricated with 14-nm finFET technology, in which CMLS-LED is implemented with WCMLS, CPLS, and Osaki's LS, shows that the proposed CMLS-LED can widen the operating voltage range by 200 mV compared wth the CPLS, along with a speed improvement of 80%, when compared to WCMLS.

Original language	English
Article number	9169669
Pages (from-to)	554-565
Number of pages	12
Journal	IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
Volume	56
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2020.3014954
Publication status	Published - 2021 Feb

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Manuscript received March 15, 2020; revised June 3, 2020 and July 15, 2020; accepted July 28, 2020. Date of publication August 17, 2020; date of current version January 28, 2021. This article was approved by Associate Editor Dennis Sylvester. This work was supported in part by the Research Resettlement Fund for the new faculty of Kwangwoon University in 2019 and in part by Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., Device Solution (Variation-Aware SRAM Design Techniques for Low-Power Applications, 2015–2020). (Corresponding author: Seong-Ook Jung.) Hanwool Jeong is with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Kwang-woon University, Seoul 01897, South Korea.

Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the Research Resettlement Fund for the new faculty of Kwangwoon University in 2019 and in part by Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., Device Solution (Variation-Aware SRAM Design Techniques for Low-Power Applications, 2015-2020).

Publisher Copyright:
© 1966-2012 IEEE.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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10.1109/JSSC.2020.3014954

Cite this

@article{b67141b206e242c5ac1c04113d60fab4,

title = "A Wide-Range Static Current-Free Current Mirror-Based LS with Logic Error Detection for Near-Threshold Operation",

abstract = "We have proposed a current mirror-based level shifter (LS) with a logic error detection (CMLS-LED), which is capable of converting a near-threshold signal to a super-threshold signal. The proposed CMLS-LED resolves the current contention problem observed in the conventional cross-coupled pFET-based LS (CPLS) by using the current mirror and removes the static current in the conventional current mirror LS with adopting the feedback pFET controlled by the output node. Compared with Wilson's current mirror-based LS (WCMLS), CMLS-LED offers an enhanced speed by avoiding the threshold voltage drop of the feedback pFET and is free from the stability issue due to an incomplete output swing. Measurement results obtained from the test chip fabricated with 14-nm finFET technology, in which CMLS-LED is implemented with WCMLS, CPLS, and Osaki's LS, shows that the proposed CMLS-LED can widen the operating voltage range by 200 mV compared wth the CPLS, along with a speed improvement of 80%, when compared to WCMLS. ",

author = "Hanwool Jeong and Kim, {Tae Hyun} and Park, {Chang Nam} and Hoonki Kim and Taejoong Song and Jung, {Seong Ook}",

note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received March 15, 2020; revised June 3, 2020 and July 15, 2020; accepted July 28, 2020. Date of publication August 17, 2020; date of current version January 28, 2021. This article was approved by Associate Editor Dennis Sylvester. This work was supported in part by the Research Resettlement Fund for the new faculty of Kwangwoon University in 2019 and in part by Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., Device Solution (Variation-Aware SRAM Design Techniques for Low-Power Applications, 2015–2020). (Corresponding author: Seong-Ook Jung.) Hanwool Jeong is with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Kwang-woon University, Seoul 01897, South Korea. Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the Research Resettlement Fund for the new faculty of Kwangwoon University in 2019 and in part by Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., Device Solution (Variation-Aware SRAM Design Techniques for Low-Power Applications, 2015-2020). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 1966-2012 IEEE.",

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AU - Song, Taejoong

AU - Jung, Seong Ook

N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received March 15, 2020; revised June 3, 2020 and July 15, 2020; accepted July 28, 2020. Date of publication August 17, 2020; date of current version January 28, 2021. This article was approved by Associate Editor Dennis Sylvester. This work was supported in part by the Research Resettlement Fund for the new faculty of Kwangwoon University in 2019 and in part by Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., Device Solution (Variation-Aware SRAM Design Techniques for Low-Power Applications, 2015–2020). (Corresponding author: Seong-Ook Jung.) Hanwool Jeong is with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Kwang-woon University, Seoul 01897, South Korea. Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the Research Resettlement Fund for the new faculty of Kwangwoon University in 2019 and in part by Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., Device Solution (Variation-Aware SRAM Design Techniques for Low-Power Applications, 2015-2020). Publisher Copyright: © 1966-2012 IEEE.

PY - 2021/2

Y1 - 2021/2

N2 - We have proposed a current mirror-based level shifter (LS) with a logic error detection (CMLS-LED), which is capable of converting a near-threshold signal to a super-threshold signal. The proposed CMLS-LED resolves the current contention problem observed in the conventional cross-coupled pFET-based LS (CPLS) by using the current mirror and removes the static current in the conventional current mirror LS with adopting the feedback pFET controlled by the output node. Compared with Wilson's current mirror-based LS (WCMLS), CMLS-LED offers an enhanced speed by avoiding the threshold voltage drop of the feedback pFET and is free from the stability issue due to an incomplete output swing. Measurement results obtained from the test chip fabricated with 14-nm finFET technology, in which CMLS-LED is implemented with WCMLS, CPLS, and Osaki's LS, shows that the proposed CMLS-LED can widen the operating voltage range by 200 mV compared wth the CPLS, along with a speed improvement of 80%, when compared to WCMLS.

AB - We have proposed a current mirror-based level shifter (LS) with a logic error detection (CMLS-LED), which is capable of converting a near-threshold signal to a super-threshold signal. The proposed CMLS-LED resolves the current contention problem observed in the conventional cross-coupled pFET-based LS (CPLS) by using the current mirror and removes the static current in the conventional current mirror LS with adopting the feedback pFET controlled by the output node. Compared with Wilson's current mirror-based LS (WCMLS), CMLS-LED offers an enhanced speed by avoiding the threshold voltage drop of the feedback pFET and is free from the stability issue due to an incomplete output swing. Measurement results obtained from the test chip fabricated with 14-nm finFET technology, in which CMLS-LED is implemented with WCMLS, CPLS, and Osaki's LS, shows that the proposed CMLS-LED can widen the operating voltage range by 200 mV compared wth the CPLS, along with a speed improvement of 80%, when compared to WCMLS.

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A Wide-Range Static Current-Free Current Mirror-Based LS with Logic Error Detection for Near-Threshold Operation

Abstract

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