Voltage-Boosted Synchronizers

Abstract

With a specified Mean Timing Between Failure (MTBF), the metastability resolution time of synchronizers possibly constrains the system performance. To enhance metastability resolution time under single low-voltage supply environments, Voltage-Boosted Synchronizers (VBSs) consisting of a basic minimum-sized Jamb latch and a switched-capacitor-based charge pump are proposed. The capacitor of the charge pump is sized 13 times the area of the Jamb latch. Two powering strategies of the charge pump, namely Metastability-driven VBS (MVBS) and Clock-driven VBS (CVBS), are proposed. For a 1-year MTBF specification, MVBS and CVBS show 2.0-2.7 and 5.1-9.8 times the performance improvement over the basic Jamb latch, respectively, without incurring large power consumption.