Energy efficient signaling in deep submicron CMOS technology

In this paper we propose an efficient technique for energy savings in DSM technology. The core of this method is based on low-voltage signaling over long on-chip interconnect with repeater insertion to tolerate DSM noise and to achieve an acceptable delay. We elaborate a heuristic algorithm, called VIJIM, for repeater insertion. VIJIM algorithm has been implemented to design a robust inverter chain for on-chip signaling using 0.25 /spl mu/m, 2.5 V, 6-metal-layers CMOS process. An average of 70% of energy-saving has been achieved by reducing the supply voltage from 2.5 V down to 1.5 K.