Design and Analysis of Low Power VLSI Circuits: Techniques and Trends

Abstract

Low power design in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuits has become a central concern due to the exponential rise in portable electronics and embedded systems. This article presents a comprehensive review and analysis of key techniques for designing energy-efficient VLSI circuits. Emphasis is placed on power reduction strategies at various abstraction levels including circuit, logic, architecture, and software levels. The paper discusses trade-offs between power, performance, and area and evaluates recent advancements in CMOS scaling, power gating, clock gating, and multi-threshold CMOS. Through simulation data and case studies, we analyze the  impact of these strategies on power dissipation and performance benchmarks. The research further outlines emerging trends in sub-threshold logic and near-threshold computing, highlighting the potential for next-generation ultra-low-power devices.