Resonant 90 degree shifter generator for 4-phase trapezoidal adiabatic logic

Abstract

Many adiabatic logic families make use of multi phase trapezoidal or sinusoidal power clocks to recover the energy stored in the load capacitances. A key aspect for the evaluation of the performance of adiabatic logic is then the study of a system that includes the power clock generator. A four-phase trapezoidal power clock generator, according to the requirements of the most promising architectures, namely the ECRL and PFAL, has been designed and simulated. The proposed circuit, realized with a double-well 0.25 µm CMOS technology and external inductors, is a resonant generator designed to oscillate at a frequency of 7 MHz, which is within the optimum frequency range for adiabatic circuits realized with this CMOS technology. The generator has been simulated with the equivalent load of fifty 1-bit adders and the operating behavior of a 4-bit adder has been evaluated. The key aspects of a generator for adiabatic logic are its power consumption and the phase relationships between its output signals. The proposed generator has a conversion efficiency higher than 80%, and it is robust with respect to variations of technology parameters. The four power supplies exhibit the correct relationship of phase also in the presence of no equally distributed loads.