Circuits for ultra-low power millimeter-scale sensor nodes

Bell's Law predicts continual scaling of the size of computing systems, and next of these systems is about to emerge: millimeter-scale sensor nodes. These miniature wireless sensors will enable multiple new applications in a wide range of fields, including medical diagnosis, infrastructure monitoring and military surveillance. However, this form factor remains beyond the capabilities of modern integrated circuit design techniques due to extremely small battery size. This paper describes new circuit design techniques for ultra-low power operations that can be applied to digital processors, memory, power management, and a special focus on standby mode operation, which will bring mm3 sensor nodes into reality.