Hybrid on-chip clocking for sensor nodes

On-chip clock generation is an attractive alternative to external quartz oscillators for low-power sensing systems. LC and ring oscillators typically use less power, and can start and stop much faster than traditional quartz oscillators, allowing systems to spend more time in low-power sleep states. A hybrid on-chip clocking scheme is evaluated in which a ring oscillator is used as the reference clock for digital processing, and an LC oscillator is used when a more stable, accurate reference is needed for digital communication. Simulations show that the fast wakeup capabilities of the hybrid clock system lead to as much as 80% reduced power in interrupt-driven applications compared to a system using a crystal reference clock source. The on-chip clock generators of the WIMS series of microsystems are described to demonstrate the concept of the hybrid clock scheme.

[1]  Daryl R. Kipke,et al.  Wireless implantable microsystems: high-density electronic interfaces to the nervous system , 2004, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[2]  Kensall D. Wise,et al.  Integrated sensors, MEMS, and microsystems: Reflections on a fantastic voyage , 2007 .

[3]  Luca Benini,et al.  A survey of design techniques for system-level dynamic power management , 2000, IEEE Trans. Very Large Scale Integr. Syst..

[4]  Karl Papadantonakis,et al.  The Lutonium: a sub-nanojoule asynchronous 8051 microcontroller , 2003, Ninth International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems, 2003. Proceedings..

[5]  Mingyan Liu,et al.  Analysis of energy consumption and lifetime of heterogeneous wireless sensor networks , 2002, Global Telecommunications Conference, 2002. GLOBECOM '02. IEEE.

[6]  Sachin S. Sapatnekar,et al.  Low-power clock distribution using multiple voltages and reduced swings , 2002, IEEE Trans. Very Large Scale Integr. Syst..

[7]  Massoud Pedram,et al.  Gated clock routing for low-power microprocessor design , 2001, IEEE Trans. Comput. Aided Des. Integr. Circuits Syst..

[8]  Ness B. Shroff,et al.  Sleep/wake scheduling for multi-hop sensor networks: Non-convexity and approximation algorithm , 2010, Ad Hoc Networks.

[9]  Richard B. Brown,et al.  A Low-Power Microinstrument for Chemical Analysis of Remote Environments , 2003 .

[10]  Michael S. McCorquodale,et al.  A 16-bit, low-power microsystem with monolithic MEMS-LC clocking , 2006, Asia and South Pacific Conference on Design Automation, 2006..

[11]  Ning Wang,et al.  Review: Wireless sensors in agriculture and food industry-Recent development and future perspective , 2006 .

[12]  B. Brock,et al.  Dynamic power management for embedded systems [SOC design] , 2003, IEEE International [Systems-on-Chip] SOC Conference, 2003. Proceedings..

[13]  Anantha P. Chandrakasan,et al.  Minimizing power consumption in digital CMOS circuits , 1995, Proc. IEEE.

[14]  M. Horowitz,et al.  Low-power digital design , 1994, Proceedings of 1994 IEEE Symposium on Low Power Electronics.

[15]  Luca Benini,et al.  Event-driven power management , 2001, IEEE Trans. Comput. Aided Des. Integr. Circuits Syst..

[16]  Vivek Tiwari,et al.  Reducing power in high-performance microprocessors , 1998, Proceedings 1998 Design and Automation Conference. 35th DAC. (Cat. No.98CH36175).

[17]  Michael S. McCorquodale,et al.  A 16-bit mixed-signal microsystem with integrated CMOS-MEMS clock reference , 2003, Proceedings 2003. Design Automation Conference (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37451).

[18]  Michael S. McCorquodale,et al.  Low-latency, HDL-synthesizable dynamic clock frequency controller with self-referenced hybrid clocking , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[19]  Yiran Chen,et al.  DCG: deterministic clock-gating for low-power microprocessor design , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems.

[20]  Jerome P. Lynch,et al.  A summary review of wireless sensors and sensor networks for structural health monitoring , 2006 .

[21]  Maohua Wang,et al.  Wireless sensors in agriculture and food industry — Recent development and future perspective , 2005 .

[22]  Michael S. McCorquodale,et al.  DSP architecture for cochlear implants , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[23]  Michael S. McCorquodale,et al.  A 25-MHz Self-Referenced Solid-State Frequency Source Suitable for XO-Replacement , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[24]  W.-M. Dai Joe G. Xi.  Buffer Insertion and Sizing Under Process Variations for Low Power Clock Distribution , 1995, 32nd Design Automation Conference.

[25]  M. Sarrafzadeh,et al.  Activity-driven clock design for low power circuits , 1995, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD).