Efficient clock distribution scheme for VLSI RNS-enabled controllers

Abstract

Clock distribution has become an increasingly challenging problem for VLSI designs because of the increase in die size and integration levels, along with stronger requirements for integrated circuit speed and reliability. Additionally, the great amount of synchronous hardware in integrated circuits makes current requirements to be very large at very precise instants. This paper presents a new approach for clock distribution in PID controllers based on RNS, where channel independence removes clock timing restrictions. This approach generates several clock signals with non-overlapping edges from a global clock. The resulting VLSI RNS-enabled PID controller, shows a significant decrease in current requirements (the maximum current spike is reduced to a 14% of single clock distribution one at 125 Mhz) and a homogeneous time distribution of current supply to the chip, while keeping extra hardware and power to a minimum. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.