Taxonomy of power supply monitors and integration challenges

Nanometer technologies are exposed to several sources of variability, among these, Power Supply Noise (PSN) has become a mayor challenge. This paper provides a broad perspective of the causes and effects of PSN along with the evolution of techniques that have been proposed to deal with it, which heavily rely on the information that can be gathered from in situ monitoring circuits. A detailed taxonomy of power supply sensors is also presented, paying attention to important parameters for the PSN problem, such as duration of the minimum detected pulse, range of detection, latency or range of temperatures covered.