Power-Efficient Voltage Level Shifter for Dual-Supply Applications

Power-Efficient Voltage Level Shifter for Dual-Supply Applications

Suprith M

M. Tech VLSI Design and Embedded Systems Department of ECE

R.V college of Engineering Bengaluru, India

Prof. Subramanya K N Assistant Professor Department of ECE

1. college of Engineering Bengaluru, India

   AbstractReduction of power consumption has always been major design goal in energy harvesting digital devices. One effective way for low power design use of multiple voltages depends on their speed. This paper presents a fast and power efficient voltage level shifting circuit capable of converting extremely low levels of input voltages into high output voltage levels. This efficiency of the implemented circuit is due to the fact that not only strength of pull-up device is significantly reduced when the pull-down device is pulling down the output node, but the strength of the pull down is also increased using a low power auxiliary circuit. Postlayout simulation results of the implemented circuit in a 180-nm technology consumes a total energy of 1.175 uJ, for an input frequency of 10 MHz, low supply voltage of 400 mV, high supply voltage of 1.8 V consuming average power of 128nW for a propagation delay of 4 ns.

   Index TermsLevel converter, low power, subthreshold operation, voltage level shifter.

   1. INTRODUCTION

      The important aspects in very large-scale industry (VLSI) is power, delay, area . The power dissipation is one the most important factor that has to be considered while designing the circuits. Power dissipation is plays important role in portable devices. The energy consumption has not been a major concern until now, because the heat generated was dissipated by large packages, cooling fins, and fans. Sub threshold and near threshold voltage circuits consumes very less amount of power and energy. Because the supply voltage of sub-VTH and near- VTH circuits is close to or lower than the threshold voltage (VTH) of a MOS transistor and those of the peripheral circuits are still high signal communications between each circuit have become difficult when conventional LSs are used. Level Shifters are required when the chips are operating in multi- voltage domains.In this way, elaboration tasks that require substantially different performance capabilities are effectively managed [2]. Aggressive voltage scaling into the sub/near- threshold region for sections operating at VDDL would provide a better use of the available energy budget [2]. One of the main challenges in the design of effective MSV SoCs is the minimization of delay and energy for level conversion between different voltage domains [2]. This issue becomes particularly

      critical when the number of power domains and/or the bus data width in the SoC increase. Several level shifter (LS) circuits were recently proposed [4-8] to allow voltage conversion from the deep subthreshold regime up to the nominal supply voltage

      level. The LS proposed in [5] is based on the Wilson current mirror configuration. This circuit results to be fast at the expense of large standby power consumption Hence, in this brief, a fast and power efficient voltage level shifter is implemented, which is able to convert extremely low values of the input voltages. Voltage level translation is needed is shown in Fig.1. when two devices have differing supply voltage nodes. Two possible conditions exist. A higher-voltage device may be needed to drive a low-voltage device. A lower-voltage device may be needed to drive a high-voltage device. If the low voltage device is the driver, the circuit typically cannot function properly without the use of a translation device.

      Low-voltage I/O Bus

      Voltage- Translation device

      Standard- voltage I/O Bus

      Low-voltage I/O Bus

      Voltage- Translation device

      Standard- voltage I/O Bus

      Fig. 1. voltage level shifter functioning

      One of the conventional level-shifting architectures is shown in Fig. 2(a). The operation of this circuit is as follows, when the input signal IN is High = VDDL, MN1 and MN2 are ON and OFF, respectively. Therefore, MN1 tries to pull the node Q1 down. Consequently, MP2 is gradually turned on to pull the node Q2 up to VDDH and to turn MP1 off. Similarly, when the input signal is changed to Low = VSS, the operation is forced to reverse states. It is noticeable that, in this structure, there is a contention at the nodes Q1 and Q2 between the pull-up devices (i.e., MP1 and MP2) driven with VDDH and the pull-down devices (i.e., MN1 and MN2) driven with VDDL. As a result, when the voltage difference between VDDL and VDDH is high and particularly when the input voltage is in subthreshold range,

      this circuit will no longer be able to convert the voltage levels. This is because the currents of the pull-down transistors are smaller than those of the pull-up devices.

      To solve this problem, several attempts have been reported. One approach is to exploit technology-based strategies, e.g., employing strong pull-down devices using low-Vth transistors and/or weak pullup networks by using high-Vth transistors [4]. Another approach is to use strong pull-down devices by enlarging their width, leading to an increase in both the delay and the power consumption. The last solution is to reduce the strength of the pull-up device when the pulldown device is pulling down the output node [5][8]. The structure illustrated in Fig. 2(b) uses a semi static current mirror to limit the current and therefore the strength of the pull-up device (i.e., MP2) when the pull-down device is pulling down the output node.

      (a) (b) (c)

      Fig. 2. Schematic of the (a) conventional level shifter, (b) level shifter with a semi-static current mirror, and (c) level shifter with a dynamic current mirror (Wilson current mirror) [5].

      However, this structure suffers from the static current flowing through MN1 and MP1 during the High logic levels of the input signal. In order to decrease the static power consumption, a dynamic current generator, which turns on only during the transition times, can be used [5][8]. The structure shown in Fig. 2(c) employs a dynamic current generator implemented by MP3 [5]. In this circuit, when the input signal IN goes from Low to High, MN2 turns off and MN1 turns on and pulls the node QB down. Since the node OUT had been Low (before the transition), during the time interval in which OUT is not corresponding to the logic level of the input signal IN, MP3 will be turned on. Therefore, a transition current flows through MN1, MP3, and MP1. This current is mirrored to MP2 (i.e., IP2) leading to pull the node OUT up. Finally, when OUT is pulled up to VDDH, MP3 is turned off and therefore no static current flows through MN1, MP3, and MP1. On the other hand, when the input signal IN is changed from High to Low, MN1 turns off and MN2 turns on trying to pull the node OUT down. As the node OUT is gradually pulled down, MP3 is turned on trying to charge the node QB, which is already discharged to the ground, meaning that a transition current (i.e., IP1) flows through MP1 and MP3 to charge node QB. This current is mirrored to MP2 (i.e., IP2) and therefore tries to pull the node OUT up, while MN2 is trying to pull this node down. This means that there is still a contention between the pull-up and the pull-down devices in the high-to-low transition of the input signal, leading to

      increase in the delay and consequently the power consumption of the circuit, especially the power of the next stage.

      The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The implemented circuit is introduced in Section II. Section III explains about multi suply design. Section IV presents the simulation results of the designed circuit verifying the efficiency of the implemented structure. Finally, the brief is concluded in Section V.

   2. IMPLEMENTED VOLTAGE LEVEL SHIFTER

      1. (b)

Fig. 3. (a) Principle of the implemented level shifter. (b) Schematic of the implemented level shifter.

Contention is still found in Fig. 2(c) when the input signal transitions from high to low as MP3 is turned on which tries to charge the capacitance CB at node QB. As a result, new voltage level shifter is implemented in Fig. 3 which works by suppressing the current IP1 and therefore IP2 during high to low transition of the output. In the implemented circuit. The principle operation of the implemented circuit is based on using MN4 to stop the static current when output is at the same logic level of the input, instead of using MP3 as in Fig .2(c). During High to Low transition of input signal, MN1 is turned on while MN4 is still turned off as output is still at high logic corresponding to previous state of the input. As a result output is pulled down through MN2 and MP3 is turned on charging the node QB to VDDH. Similarly during Low to High transition of the input signal MN1 is turned on also MN4 is still turned on, even though MN3 is turned on, because the overdrive voltage of MP3 (i.e., VDDH) is larger than that of MN3(i.e., VDDL). Therefore, a transition current flows through MN4, MN1 and MP1 (i.e., IP1). This current is mirrored into MP2 (i.e., IP2) and output node is pulled up to VDDH. Once the output is pulled high MP3 is turned off as a result gate of MN4 is pulled down by MN3, as a result MN4 is turned off which results in no static current flow through MP1, MN1 and MN4. As a result in contrast to the structure shown in Fig. 2(c), roughly no transition current flows through MP1. However, when no static current is flowing through MP1, MN1 and MN4 the node QA is just pulled up just to VDDH |Vth|, where Vth is the threshold voltage of MP1. This means that the current of MP2 (i.e., IP2) is still not completely close to zero but a weak subthreshold current still exists consequently a weak contention still exists between MP2 and MN2. In order to further reduce the value of IP2, another device,

i.e., MP4 in Fig. 3(a) is used. Now during High to Low transition when MN2 is pulling down the output node, the gate of MP4 is High with the value of VDDL and therefore the drainsource voltage of MP2 is decreased. As a result both power and the propagation delay

during high to low transition of input signal is reduced therefore the. If however the gates of MN2 and MP4 are driven with a voltage higher than VDDL, not only the current of the pull-up device (i.e., IP2) is drastically reduced, but also the strength of the pull-down device (i.e., MN2) is increased. Thus, the contention and therefore the delay and the power are significantly reduced. Moreover, the level shifter will be able to properly even for subthreshold input voltages. In order to apply this technique to the implemented structure, as shown in Fig. 3(b), an auxiliary circuit (i.e., MP5, MP6, MP7, MN5, MN6, and MN7) is used. This auxiliary circuit turns on only in the high-to-low transition of the input signal to pull up the node QC to a value larger than VDDL. The operation of this part of the circuit is as follows. When IN changes from High to Low and OUT is not still corresponding to the input logic level, MN6, MN7, and MP6 are turned on and MN5 is turned off. Therefore, a transition current flows through MN6, MN7, MP6, and mirrors to MP7 (i.e., IP7) pulling up the node QC. This means that MP4 is turned off and MN2 is turned on with a voltage higher than VDDL, as shown in Fig. 3(b), leading to a significant reduction in the aforementioned contention. Finally, when OUT is pulled down, MN6 is turned off and consequently no current flows through MN6, MN7, andMP6 meaning that the auxiliary circuit is turned on only during the high-to-low transition of the input signal. It can be concluded that the working of the implemented circuit is based on reducing the strength of the pull-up device when the pull-down device is pulling down the output node, also the strength of the pull-down device is also increased in the circuit using an auxiliary circuit. Finally, during Low to High transition of input signal when the output is at Low level a short circuit flows through MP3 and MN3 so in order to reduce the short-circuit current, instead of the output signal, the input is used to drive the gate of MN3. In other words, in the conventional inverter, both low-to-high and high-to-low short- circuit currents exist whereas in the implemented structure, only a small current at the low to-high transition exists. Moreover, this current is reduced due to the fact that the gate of MN3 is driven by VDDL not VDDH.

III MULTI SUPPLY DESIGN

In order to verify the functionality of the proposed level shifter, it is implemented in Dual supply design. This application is consists of three blocks- Half-adder, voltage level shifter and D- latch.

Fig.4. Block diagram of multi supply design

1. Half adder

   HA is a combinational circuit that performs addition. It consist of two inputs and two outputs. It consists of one XOR gate and one AND gate. The inputs to Half adder are A and B respectively and outputs to half adder are SUM and CARRY.

   Fig.5.Half-adder circuit

2. Voltage level shifter

   The SUM of half adder is applied as input to one level shifter and CARRY of half adder is applied to another level shifter.

   The input of 1 V is applied to level shifter and converts this voltage to 3 V.

3. D-latch

The D-latch is designed using a combination of four NAND gates and inverter .It has D input, Enable input and Output Q and Q b

Fig.6. D-latch implementation by using NAND gates

1. SIMULATION RESULTS

   Fig. 7 shows the implemented voltage level shifter using 180 nm technology in cadence virtuoso. Then the transient response due to input signal is obtained as shown in Fig. 8.

   Fig. 7.Voltage Level Shifter with Auxiliary Circuit

   The power consumption of voltage level shifter can be classified in two static power consumption and dynamic power consumption. Static power dissipation is found more in this design during high to low transition of output signal. This is higher than dynamic power dissipation, which arises due to charging and discharging of load capacitance.

   The implemented level shifter with auxiliary circuit was further modified to optimize the delay and power delay product by trying to increase the Vth of the switching transistor thereby reducing the dynamic power dissipation.

   Fig. 8. Transient response of all the level shifters for the input signal.

   Fig. 9. Current IP1 during low to high transition of the input signal.

   Current flowing through the MP1 during low to high transition of the input signal is shown in Fig. 8.

   Fig. 10. Current flowing through the output branch during high to low transition of the input signal

   Fig. 11. simulated waveforms of half adder

   Fig.12.simulated waveforms of d-latch

   Fig.12.simulated waveforms of multi-supply design

   Table 1 Comparison Results of Voltage Level shifters

   Architecture	Average Power (nW)	Delay(ns)	Power Delay Product(nW.nS)
   1	4761	5.2	4639.8
   2	766.9	8.07	6188.2
   3	117.7	6.3	741
   4	128	4.6	588

2. CONCLUSION

   Power Dissipation is one of the major factors that is to be considered in designing of circuits. Different techniques are considered to attain the low powe dissipation circuits. In this brief, a fast and low-power voltage level-shifting architecture was proposed which is able to convert extremely low-input voltages. The efficiency of the proposed circuit is due to the fact that not only the current of the pull-up device is significantly reduced when the pull-down device is pulling down the output node, but the strength of the pull-down device is also increased

3. REFERENCES

1. S. R. Hosseini, M. Saberi, and R. Lotfi, A High-Speed and Power-Efficient Voltage Level Shifter for Dual-Supply Applications, IEEE transactions on Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits, , vol. 61, no. 10, pp. 753757, Oct. 2016.

2. Marco Lanuzza, Felice Crupi, Sandro Rao, Raffaele De Rose, Sebastiano Strangio, and Giuseppe Iannaccone, An ultra Low Voltage energy Efficient Level Shifter, IEEE transactions on Circuits and Systems , Volume: 64 ,Issue 1, pp 61 – 65, Jan. 2017.

3. Zhenqiang Yong, Xiaoyan Xiang, Chen Chen, Jianyi Meng, "An Energy-Efficient and Wide-Range Voltage Level Shifter With Dual Current Mirror", Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems IEEE Transactions on, vol. 25, pp. 3534-3538, 2017.

4. S. R. Hosseini, M. Saberi, and R. Lotfi, A low-power subthreshold to above-threshold voltage level shifter, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II, Exp. Briefs, vol. 61, no. 10, pp. 753757, Oct. 2014.

5. Ryo Matsuzuka, Tetsuya Hirose, Yuzuru Shizuku, Kyohei Shinonaga, Nobutaka Kuroki and Masahiro Numa, An 80-mV-to- 1.8-V Conversion-Range Low-Energy Level Shifter for Extremely Low-Voltage VLSIs, IEEE Transactions on circuits and systems, vol 64, issue 8, pp.697,706, 2017

6. A.Wang and A. P. Chandrakasan, A 180-mV subthreshold FFT processor using a minimum energy design methodology, IEEE J.

   Solid-State Circuits, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 310319, Jan. 2005

7. K. Usami et al., Automated low-power technique exploiting multiple supply voltages applied to a media processor, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 463472, Mar. 1998