Open AccessLevel Converters for Ultra Low Power IoT Applications
Author(s) -
Tangellapally Chary,
S. Anitha,
Miguel Angel Alamillo,
Ameet Chavan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2227-524X
DOI - 10.14419/ijet.v7i2.16.11409
Subject(s) - interfacing , converters , low voltage , electronic engineering , computer science , power (physics) , subthreshold conduction , electronic circuit , electrical engineering , dissipation , voltage , efficient energy use , energy consumption , network topology , energy (signal processing) , dynamic voltage scaling , transistor , engineering , computer hardware , physics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics , statistics , mathematics , operating system
For efficient ultra-low power IoT applications, working with various communication devices and sensors which operating voltages from subthreshold to superthreshold levels which requires wide variety of robust level converters for signal interfacing with low power dissipation. This paper proposes two topologies of level converter circuits that offer dramatic improvement in power and performance when compared to the existing level converters that shift signals from sub to super threshold levels for IoT applications. At 250 mV, the first proposed circuit - a modification of a tradition al current mirror level converter - offers the best energy efficiency with approximately seven times less energy consumption per operation than the existing design, but suffers from a slight reduction in performance. However, a second proposed circuit - based on a two-stage level converter - at the same voltage enhances performance by several orders of magnitude while still maintaining a modest improvement in energy efficiency. The Energy Delay Products (EDP) of the two proposed designs are equivalent and are approximately four times better than the best existing design. Consequently, the two circuit options either optimizes power or performance with improved overall EDP.