New-Tech Magazine - Europe | January Digital edition

A Revolutionary Approach to Eliminating Power

Mike Salas, Ambiq Micro

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a circuit’s state isn’t changing, and dynamically as internal nodes are charged up and down. For realistic circuits in operation, dynamic power dominates - especially for the higher power supply voltages used in most designs today (see Figure 1). Dynamic energy is determined by operating voltage Sub-threshold techniques are a way to create circuits that consume dramatically less energy than those built using standard design practices. Sub-threshold design is challenging, but, given the right experience and diligence, it can be done and with immense benefits. The results are circuits that provide

the same functions as more traditional ones but use a fraction of the energy. There is no compromise in performance, robustness, or reliability. These chips can operate alongside their traditional counterparts with no externally-visible difference – except for the amount of energy required to drive them. They can provide important energy savings to designers building energy-efficient systems. Because of the fundamental nature of these innovations, sub-threshold design techniques can be applied to virtually any type of IC device. Sub-threshold was proven decades ago Sub-threshold design isn’t a new concept. As far back as the 1970s,

ne company in Austin, Texas is about to change the way

electronics are powered. The Internet of Things and the advent of ubiquitous computing have highlighted the importance of reducing power consumption throughout electronics. If the immediate future will truly see the networking of all electronics and hitherto unconnected devices then the real prize is not to maximise the performance of the technology - the performance is fast enough to maintain an IoT already - it is to reduce energy consumption enough that the electronic things can function meaningfully within this new internet. Energy is consumed in two fundamental ways: as leakage, when

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