Microprocessor Power Reduction

With the use of portable and wireless electronic systems increasing, reduction in power/energy consumption has become one of the most important design concerns. Power dissipation not only affects performance and battery life, but also has a large impact on packaging, reliability, and heat removal costs. Threshold voltage is the minimum amount of power necessary to turn on a microprocessor. By fine-tuning this threshold, a much more efficient system can be created. Threshold tuning has been shown to decrease power consumption by as much as 10%, and power leakage by as much as 80%; however, current threshold tuning technology is limited by the physical dimensions of the microprocessor itself. SPAWAR has patented a pulsed laser method that overcomes this limitation allowing the threshold voltage of a microprocessor to be tuned regardless of its physical dimensions. Summary of Benefits Significant reduction in power needed for microprocessor Significant reduction in power leakage and dissipation The technology can be applied to any materials system (e.g., semi-conductor materials to include organics and substrates) End-user power conservation and cost reduction Reduction in overall system temperature Pulsed laser technique allows for greater accuracy in threshold tuning and selection of processor/transistors Ability to tune the threshold voltage for different applications integrated on the same chip