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US 6,650,171 B2Granted
Low power operation mechanism and method
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsKevin X. Zhang, Micah Barany, Krishnan Ravichandran, Bob Jackson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method are provided for powering a chip having at least one transistor. A voltage regulating device may apply a first voltage and a second voltage to the transistor. The voltage regulating device may include a mechanism to apply a third voltage to a body contact of the transistor while applying the first voltage to the transistor. This places the transistor in a reverse body bias mode which conserves energy by reducing leakage current.
Claims24
An apparatus comprising:
- a chip operable in a first power mode and in a second power mode, the chip including at least one transistor having a body contact and a source contact;
- and
- a voltage device operable to power said chip in said first power mode by applying a first voltage to said body contact and applying a similar voltage level to said source contact, the voltage device to power said chip in said second power mode by applying a second voltage to said body contact and applying said similar voltage level to said source contact.
An apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of transistors;
- a first plurality of signal lines to distribute a first voltage to corresponding body contacts of said plurality of transistors in a first power mode, and to distribute a second voltage to said corresponding body contacts of said plurality of transistors in a second power mode;
- and
- a second plurality of signal lines to distribute a third voltage to corresponding source contacts of said plurality of transistors in the first power mode and in the second power mode, said third voltage being substantially equal to said first voltage.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- powering a chip in a first power mode by applying a first voltage to a body contact of at least one transistor on said chip and by applying a similar voltage level to a source contact of the at least one transistor on said chip;
- and
- powering said chip in a second power mode by applying a second voltage to said body contact of said at least one transistor and applying said similar voltage level to said source contact of the at least one transistor.
A method comprising:
- powering a chip based on a normal power mode by applying similar voltages to source and body contacts on components of the chip;
- and
- applying reverse body bias to the components of said chip based on a lower power mode, said applying reverse body bias comprising changing voltages applied to body contacts on the components of the chip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.