IC

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab.

Department of Electrical Engineering
National Central University
Taoyuan, Taiwan

 (Internet of Things)

Smart Home

Smart Cars

Smart Health

Smart Energy
Smart Appliances
Smart Control
Smart Lighting
.

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

Source: B. Krysiak, STMicroelectronics

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

2.5D/3D ICs
Memristor Memory
Non-Volatile Computing
Big Data, etc.

Requirements for ICs

in IoTs:
1. Low power
2. Low Cost

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

Opportunities

Source: ABI Research

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

2015, https://www.mobilehero.com/mediatek2015/index1.asp
, https://www.mobilehero.com/mediatek2015/index2-1.asp
http://labs.mediatek.com/site/global/developer_tools/mediatek_linkit
/whatis_linkit/index.gsp
MediaTek LinkIt ONE Developer's Guide,
http://labs.mediatek.com/fileMedia/download/5fed7907-b2ba-4000bcb2-016a332a49fd

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

Ultra-Low-Energy Design
Edge devices of many IoT applications have the
feature
Normally-off, Instant-on

In addition to the reduction of dynamic power,

Static power reduction is a critical issue

Non-volatile computing
Volatile Logic

NVL
Controller

Volatile
Flip-Flops

IFC

Backup/Restore
Non-Volatile
Storage

Embedded flash?

IFC: Interface Circuit

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

Memristor (The Fourth Element)

Memristor is a passive, non-linear device
Characteristics of memory and resistor
Top electrode

I-V characteristic
I

Doped region
Undoped region

w
D-w

Bottom electrode

V
Roff
Ron
Source: [1] D.B. Strukov et al., Nature, 2008
Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

Memristor Memory Cell Structures

1R structure

Low area cost

Sneak path

1D1R structure

1T1R structure

Unipolar
Simple
Complicated operations High area cost
of memory devices
Source: ITRS, 2012

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

10

Possible NVC Architectures

Centralized Architecture

NVFFs

Non-volatile flip-flop (NVFF)

clk
D
Backup
Restore

MFFs

NV
Memory

MFFs

NV
Memory

MFFs

NV
Memory

Modified flip-flop (MFF)

clk

ML

SL

Interface
1-bit NV
Storage

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

Hybrid Architecture
Combinational
Logic

Combinational
Logic

Combinational
Logic

Distributed Architecture

D
Restore

ML

SL

Interface
From NV
memory

To NV
memory

11


IoT
LinkIt One

IC

Jin-Fu Li
ARES Lab. EE, NCU

12