A body bias generator compatible with cell-based design flow for within-die variability compensation

A body bias generator (BBG) for fine-grain body biasing (FGBB) compatible with cell-based design How is proposed. The FGBB is effective to reduce variability and power consumption in a system-on-chip (SoC). Since FGBB needs a number of BBGs, automated design How of BBGs is required. This paper proposes a design of the BBG to implement the BBG in a cell-based design How by partitioning BBG into unit-height cells. Circuit configuration of the BBG enables wide range of the supply voltage from 0.6V to 1.2V. We fabricated the BBG in a 65nm CMOS process to control 0.1mm
²
of core circuit with the area overhead of 1.4% for the BBG.