Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS)

Power Management
Vasantham Sudheer Kumar
Meen Chan Winston Seo

History
Richard Feynmans Theres Plenty
of Room at the Bottom 1959,
Caltech
Issued two challenges: Operational
nanomotor (W. McLellan, 1960) and
writing letters on a nanoscale (T.
Newman, 1985)

http://undergrad.research.ucsb.edu/wpcontent/uploads/AFM_laser.gif

Considered implications of
mechanical atomic manipulation:
denser computer circuitry, atomic
and sub-atomic microscopes
Latter realized by AFM and STM
SECTION TITLE | 2

Modern NEMS
Key functions and
applications:
Sensors
Communications
Biotechnology
Robotics
High fundamental
frequencies
High mechanical
responsivity
High levels of sensitivity
Needed for novel modes of
efficient actuation

Nanoelectromechanical Systems (M. L. Roukes , Caltech)

Modern NEMS
Example: SEM image
Tuning fork geometry
nanoelectromechanical switch

Venumbaka, 2010, U. of Utah

Power Consumption and Management in NEMS

Efficient power and
thermal management is
the biggest limiting factor
of further downscaling of
electric devices:
Power leakage constitutes
nearly 50% of a chips total
power usage beyond the
65nm CMOS technology
Exponential increase of
power leakage is a top
concern, especially in
memory systems;
decreases robustness of
read/write operations

Venumbaka, 2010, U. of Utah

Power Consumption and Management in NEMS

Power density: W cm^-2
Cm dominates,
exponentially increasing
power density
Standard 10nm chips: 95W
cm^-2
R&D chips: 1000W cm^-2
reported
Sung, M. K.; Mudawar, I.
(2009). "Single-phase and
two-phase hybrid cooling
schemes for high-heat-flux
thermal management of
defense electronics"

Parallelism to the
Rescue

Parallelism allows slower, more efficient cores

While maintaining overall throughput

Works well (if you can parallel program), but

Novel power management architecture

Motivation : 3D Stacked Integrated Circuits
Technique : Through Silicon Vias based integration technology

Addressed technological developments

(i) A Nano-ElectroMechanical (NEM) device, the Suspended Gate FET
(SGFET) as sleep transistor
(ii) Make use of the 3D potential by placing the sleep transistor (the
entire power management infrastructure) on a dedicated tier of the
3D stacked Integrated Circuit.
Focus: NEMS utilization as sleep transistor in CMOS
power gated integrated circuits
Dedicated tier in the stack for the sleep
transistors

3D STACKED ICS
To achieve tight chip integration

Through Silicon Vias (TSVs) as interconnec

between the stacked dies
3D Stacked SG-FET
Based Power
Management
Architecture.

SUSPENDED GATE FET

Operation of Electromechanical
Switch
Response to the bias Voltage
levels
Pull in Effect and Pull out
effect

Whats new in Power Gating

Architectures
Existing Power gating Architectures use STs as ring or columns
around gated block
NEMS technology dies containing SG-FET STs placed between dies
containing the actual power gated circuits
Advantages
Precious Area
Reduction in
Interconnect lengths
between gated blocks

Conclusion & Future

Scope
In Summary, Novel Suspended GateFET (SG-FET) based power
management architecture for 3D Through Silicon Vias based
integration technology.
3D integration is an effective way to make use of the SG-FET
characteristics, i.e., abrupt switching and extreme low leakage, in
effective NEMS-based power/energy/thermal management.
communicating signals from the nanoscale to the macroscopic
world; understanding and controlling mesoscopic mechanics; and
developing methods for reproducible and routine nanofabrication.

References
Sung, M. K.; Mudawar, I. (2009). "Single-phase and two-phase hybrid
cooling schemes for high-heat-flux thermal management of defense
electronics
James E. Hughes Jr;Massimiliano Di Ventra; Stephane Evoy (2004).
Introduction to Nanoscale Science and Technology (Nanostructure Sci
ence and Technology)
. Berlin: Springer.ISBN1-4020-7720-3.
G. Panic, Z. Stamenkovic, and R. Kraemer, Power gating in wireless
sensor networks, in Wireless Pervasive Computing, 2008. ISWPC
2008. 3rd International Symposium on, 2008, pp. 499503.
Nanoelectromechanical Systems (M. L. Roukes , Caltech)