Impact of technology scaling on leakage reduction techniques

Techniques that reduce total leakage in circuits operating in the active mode at different temperature conditions are examined. Also, the implications of technology scaling on the choice of techniques to mitigate total leakage are investigated. Logic gates in the 65 nm, 45 nm, and 32 nm nodes are simulated and analyzed. The techniques that are adopted for comparison in this work affect both gate and subthreshold leakage, namely, stack forcing, pin reordering, reverse body biasing, and high threshold voltage transistors. Aside from leakage, our analysis also highlights the impact of these techniques on the circuit's performance and noise margins. Power sensitive technology mapping tools can use the guidelines found in this work in the low power design flow, to meet the required maximum leakage current in a circuit. These guidelines are presented in general terms so that they can be adopted for any application and process technology.