Circuits and methods that harvest electrostatic energy from transient on-chip data are described in the Application. In one aspect, a method and inverter circuit harvests electrostatic charge held at its output node at an electric potential comparable to the power supply voltage rail to a common grid/node as the output makes a 1.fwdarw.0 logic transition. This charge harvested at a common grid/node can be used by circuits (described in applications 63/090,169, 63/139,744) to drive 0.fwdarw.1 logic transition at their output nodes at lower energy drain from the on-chip power grid than a conventional CMOS inverter would with similar performance, slew rates at inverter input and output and with similar output driving transistor geometries.

A method for the delivery of power to subthreshold (sub-Vt) circuits uses unused current during idle-mode operation of super-threshold (super-Vt) circuits is used to supply sub-Vt circuits. Algorithmic and circuit techniques use dynamic management of idle cores when reusing the leakage current of the idle cores. A scheduling algorithm, longest idle time-leakage reuse (LIT-LR) enables energy efficient reuse of leakage current, which generates a supply voltage of 340 mV with less than ±3% variation across the tt, ff, and ss process corners. The LIT-LR algorithm reduces the energy consumption of the switch and the peak power consumption by, respectively, 25% and 7.4% as compared to random assignment of idle cores for leakage reuse. Second, a usage ranking based algorithm, longest idle time-simultaneous leakage reuse and power gating (LIT-LRPG) enables simultaneous implementation of power gating (PG) and leakage reuse in a multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) platform.

A size setting method for a power switch transistor and a system thereof are proposed. A load current extracting step is performed to extract a first load current and a second load current. A limited voltage drop calculating step is performed to calculate a limited voltage drop according to a speed proportional value, the first load current and the second load current. A standard supply current calculating step is performed to calculate a standard supply current according to the limited voltage drop. A simulated supply current calculating step is performed to calculate a simulated supply current according to the standard supply current, the limited voltage drop and a line voltage value. A size setting step is performed to compare the first load current with the simulated supply current to calculate a size parameter, and set a size of the power switch transistor according to the size parameter.

An apparatus includes an integrated circuit (IC), which includes complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry. The CMOS circuitry includes a p-channel transistor network that includes at least one p-channel transistor having a gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) current. The IC further includes a native metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor coupled to supply a bias voltage to the at least one p-channel transistor to reduce the GIDL current of the at least one p-channel transistor.

The present invention provides an output buffer including a first transistor, a second transistor and a pad-tracking circuit is disclosed. The first transistor is coupled between a supply voltage and an output node, wherein the output node is coupled to a pad. The second transistor is coupled between the output node and a reference voltage. The pad-tracking circuit is coupled to the control circuit and the first transistor, and is configured to generate a gate control signal to a gate electrode of the first transistor. The output buffer is selectively operated in an input mode and a fail-safe mode, and when the output buffer switches between the input mode and the fail-safe mode and the supply voltage of the first transistor ramps up or ramps down, the pad-tracking circuit generates the gate control signal to the gate electrode of the first transistor according to the voltage of the pad.

A level shifter comprises a first control switch (207) for connecting an output terminal to a first supply voltage (VDDH) to set an output signal to be high, and a second control switch (208) for connecting the output terminal to a signal ground (GND) to set the output signal to be low. The level shifter comprises a pre-charging switch (210) for connecting the output terminal to the first supply voltage, and an input gate circuit (211) for controlling an ability of an input signal to control the second control switch. The level shifter comprises a keeper circuit (212) for controlling the first control switch based on the output signal. The first control switch is controlled with the first supply voltage when the output signal is low, and with a second supply voltage that is between the first supply voltage and the signal ground when the output signal is high.

A semiconductor device includes a first gate electrode, an insulating part, a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a contact part. The insulating part is on one surface of the first gate electrode. The source electrode is connected to the insulating part. The drain electrode is connected to the insulating part. The contact part is between the source electrode and the drain electrode and on the insulating part. The contact part contains an atomic layered material. The contact part has a second part contactable with a sample. The second surface is opposite to a first surface facing the insulating part. A surface of the insulating part, the surface facing the contact part, has an uneven structure with respect to the first gate electrode.

A die-to-die data transmitter is disclosed with a pull-up one-shot circuit and a pull-down one-shot circuit, each forming a delay circuit that determines a variable preemphasis period.

A transmitter is disclosed with a pull-up feedback circuit and a feedback circuit. The transmitter includes an output driver for driving an output terminal.

A device includes a power supply line, an output terminal, a circuit configured to perform a logic operation on a first signal and a second signal to produce a third signal, first, second and third transistors. The first transistor is coupled between the power supply line and the output terminal and includes a control gate supplied with the third signal. The second and third transistors are coupled in series between the power supply line and the output terminal. The second transistor includes a control gate supplied with the first signal and the third transistor includes a control gate supplied with a fourth signal that is different from each of the first, second and third signals.