Single-Phase Flip-Flop With Local Clock Buffering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flip-flops in digital systems consume significant power, particularly due to clock power consumption, and existing designs face challenges in reducing power and size while maintaining reliable operation and avoiding contention issues.
Innovation Solution
The design of a single-phase flip-flop with a reduced number of switch elements, incorporating a local clock buffer for deterministic clock slew rate and reduced capacitance, and optimized logic gate configurations to achieve static, contention-free operation with fewer transistors, thereby lowering power consumption and chip size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If conventional flip-flop designs are used, then reliable operation is achieved, but power consumption is high
Solution Approach 1:
The flip-flop is divided into master latch and slave latch portions, each with dedicated clock buffers. This segmentation allows independent optimization of clock distribution and reduces overall power consumption while maintaining reliable operation through distributed clock buffering.
Solution Approach 2:
Clock buffers are placed locally at the master latch and slave latch to provide deterministic clock slew rates specifically where needed. This local buffering approach reduces power consumption by minimizing clock tree capacitance while ensuring reliable timing at critical points.
2Area of stationary object
If conventional flip-flop designs are used, then operation reliability is maintained, but chip size is large
Solution Approach 1:
The clock buffer functionality is merged directly into the master latch and slave latch structures. This integration eliminates separate clock buffer components and reduces chip size while maintaining deterministic clock slew rates and reliable operation through the combined latch-buffer architecture.
3Speed
If more clock buffering is added, then deterministic clock slew rate is achieved, but capacitance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The clock buffering function is extracted from the main clock tree and embedded directly within the master and slave latches. This extraction creates localized buffering that provides deterministic clock slew rates without adding significant capacitance to the overall clock distribution network.
Data Source
AI summary
A single-phase flip-flop comprising: a master latch comprising: a first circuit to generate a master latch signal in response to a first master logic operation on a flip flop input signal and a first clock signal, and a second circuit to generate a master output signal in response to a second master logic operation on the first clock signal and master latch signal; a slave latch comprising: a third circuit to generate a slave output signal in response to a first slave logic operation on the first clock signal and one of the master output signal and an inverted slave output signal; and wherein the master latch is configured to capture the flip-flop input signal during a first portion of the first clock signal and the slave latch is configured to capture the master output signal during a second portion of the first clock signal.