Bryan Ngo

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2024-126

May 17, 2024

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-126.pdf

The rapid proliferation of mobile computing introduces several design challenges for a modern integrated circuit, such as power usage. A modern integrated circuit must be able to efficiently manage its power supply. There exists two ways of approaching the problem. The first is that of infrastructure, or creating an environment in which power-efficient designs can be easily conveyed and automatically inferred. The second is that of design, or creating circuits to facilitate power-efficient operation. This work approaches this problem from the perspective of VLSI infrastructure, as well as on-chip integrated circuits.

The first part of this work describes the implementation of multiple power domains in an open-source VLSI flow manager, HAMMER. We demonstrate an API that allows a user to specify arbitrary physical domains on chip, and generates a power format that can be further used to verify the domain specification. This API is able to be translated into a power intent that can be ingested by EDA tools and displayed in a real VLSI flow.

The second part of this work describes the design and implementation of a digitally-controlled low-dropout regulator (LDO). The LDO serves as a testbed for design space exploration both in the analog domain and the digital domain. We demonstrate a design with an integral control logic scheme achieving 144 mV dropout voltage, 200 ns settling time, and 99.6% current efficiency, competitive with previous work.

Advisors: Borivoje Nikolic

---

BibTeX citation:

@mastersthesis{Ngo:EECS-2024-126,
    Author= {Ngo, Bryan},
    Title= {VLSI Design and Circuits for Multiple Supply Domains},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2024},
    Month= {May},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-126.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2024-126},
    Abstract= {The rapid proliferation of mobile computing introduces several design challenges for a modern integrated circuit, such as power usage. A modern integrated circuit must be able to efficiently manage its power supply. There exists two ways of approaching the problem. The first is that of infrastructure, or creating an environment in which power-efficient designs can be easily conveyed and automatically inferred. The second is that of design, or creating circuits to facilitate power-efficient operation. This work approaches this problem from the perspective of VLSI infrastructure, as well as on-chip integrated circuits.

The first part of this work describes the implementation of multiple power domains in an open-source VLSI flow manager, HAMMER. We demonstrate an API that allows a user to specify arbitrary physical domains on chip, and generates a power format that can be further used to verify the domain specification. This API is able to be translated into a power intent that can be ingested by EDA tools and displayed in a real VLSI flow.

The second part of this work describes the design and implementation of a digitally-controlled low-dropout regulator (LDO). The LDO serves as a testbed for design space exploration both in the analog domain and the digital domain. We demonstrate a design with an integral control logic scheme achieving 144 mV dropout voltage, 200 ns settling time, and 99.6% current efficiency, competitive with previous work.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Ngo, Bryan 
%T VLSI Design and Circuits for Multiple Supply Domains
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2024
%8 May 17
%@ UCB/EECS-2024-126
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-126.html
%F Ngo:EECS-2024-126