Self-Resetting Level-Conversion Flip-Flops with Direct Output Feedback for Dual-Supply SoCs

Joo-Seong KIM  Bai-Sun KONG  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E91-C   No.2   pp.240-243
Publication Date: 2008/02/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e91-c.2.240
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: LETTER
Category: Electronic Circuits
Keyword: 
level converter,  clustered voltage scaling,  self-precharging,  conditional capture,  low power,  

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Summary: 
This paper describes novel CMOS level-conversion flip-flops for use in low-power SoCs with clustered voltage scaling. These flip-flops feed outputs directly into the front stage to support self-resetting and conditional operations. They thus have simple structures to avoid clock level shifting and redundant transitions, leading to substantial improvements in terms of power and area. The comparison results indicate that the proposed level-conversion flip-flops achieve power and area savings up to 50% and 31%, respectively, with no speed degradation as compared to conventional level-conversion flip-flops.