A Dynamically Reconfigurable Power Management System With Self-Monitoring Capabilities for Energy-Efficient SoCs

This paper presents a dynamically reconfigurable power management unit (PMU) with selfmonitoring capabilities, designed to enable Ultra-Low Power (ULP) operation. The proposed system consumes just 1.68μW, which represents a 30% reduction in power consumption when compared to state-of-the-art implementations operating at 32kHz. Fabricated in 22nm FD-SOI technology, the proposed PMU leverages a novel Real-Time Clock (RTC) architecture that provides performance and workload self-monitoring capabilities and also has the capability to change its operation modes automatically based on current workload. With the usage of such RTC, the PMU eliminates the need for external control units, complex state machines or processors, significantly reducing system complexity and silicon area. Since RTCs are already present in many systems and the proposed architecture only requires a 15% area increase for additional state-control registers, it makes it particularly well-suited for implantable, wearable or other Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices, where energy autonomy, system miniaturization, and safe long-term operation are essential.