Integrated circuits with adjustable body bias and power supply circuitry

Abstract

An integrated circuit is provided with adjustable transistor body bias circuitry and adjustable power supply circuitry. The adjustable circuitry may be used to selectively apply body bias voltages and power supply voltages to blocks of programmable logic, memory blocks, and other circuit blocks on the integrated circuit. The body bias voltages and power supply voltages may be identified by computer aided design tools. The body bias voltages may be used to reduce leakage currents and power consumption when high speed circuit block operation is not required. Reduced power supply voltages may also be used to reduce power consumption when high speed circuit block operation is not required. To ensure optimum switching speeds, circuit blocks for which high-speed performance is critical can be provided with minimal body bias voltage or no body bias and can be provided with maximum power supply levels.

Description

technical field [0001] [0001] The present invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly to circuits and design systems useful for integrated circuits that improve performance and reduce power consumption by making transistor power and body bias adjustments. Background technique [0002] [0002] Efforts are being made in the current semiconductor industry to improve device performance. Improvements in speed, power consumption and density have been achieved by scaling transistor elements to smaller sizes and lower operating voltages. Some of these attempts at scaling resulted in lower transistor threshold voltages. Low transistor threshold voltages are generally advantageous because they help improve transistor switching speed. However, low transistor threshold voltages can also lead to increased transistor leakage. An increase in transistor losses is undesirable because transistor losses may generate undesired power losses. [0003] [0003] In order to ens...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0005] [0005] While techniques such as these can help reduce power consumption while maintaining device performance, it is not always possible to bias transistors in active circuits because the body bias configuration reduces transistor speed. body terminal

Also, transistors that form part of an active circuit cannot be set to a sleep state because the circuit will not operate in the sleep state

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