Use of charge sharing to reduce energy consumption in wide fan-in gates

This paper presents a novel technique to reduce the energy and delay of dynamic large fan-in gates. The basic idea is to generate a low swing output signal by first charging a small dummy capacitor and then discharging it on the (pre-discharged) gate output. By employing the principle of charge sharing, a small swing will be created on the gate output. This swing can be then detected and restored to CMOS level using a sense amplifier. Simulation results illustrates 2 to 4 times energy savings and up to 3.6 times speed-up as compared to conventional dynamic approaches. The design of a 32 x 32 TLB in a 0.6 um process using the proposed approach is also described.