Autonomous Distributed Systems

Power consumed in electronics is a major issue for both government and commercial systems, and has become a driver in certain applications when required capability, available power sources, and total power budget must be balanced. One of the keyrequirements of autonomous distributed underwater systems is to minimize power consumed behind the instrument sensors, in extracting, coding and transmitting data within the advanced network. Ultra-low power technology is a breakthrough technology thatenables devices fabricated on slightly modified standard CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon) fabrication to operate close to normal CMOS speeds (~200MHz) while consuming greatly reduced amounts of power. This technology, which enables CMOS circuitsto operate at supply voltages of 0.5 volts and less, has been under development for several years. In the last couple of years, functional components have been designed, fabricated, and tested using ultra-low power techniques and a 0.35¿m process line.Reductions in power levels of more than 100 times have been demonstrated without reduction in speed of operation, when compared to standard 3.3-volt circuits. This program proposes to build on the work that has been done to date.There is enormouspotential for commercial applications resulting from this project. The capability to significantly reduce power requirements for battery powered instruments while still maintaining speed of operation (performance) has application throughout the governmentand commercial industry. This ultra low power technology is as much as 10 years ahead of the Semicondustor Industry Association technology roadmap. It is expected to be of great importance to the communications, computer and personal electronicsmarketplace.