Designing For Ultra-Low-Power IoT Devices
By Ann Steffora-Mutschler, Semiconductor Engineering
Optimizing designs for power is becoming the top design challenge in battery-driven IoT devices, boxed in by a combination of requirements such as low cost, minimum performance and functionality, as well as the need for at least some of the circuits to be always on.
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This makes it critical to verify that only acceptable power modes can be configured during chip operation, noted Tom Anderson, technical marketing consultant at OneSpin Solutions.
“Powering up more portions of a device than planned could exceed battery limits, compromise cooling methods, or permanently damage the silicon,” Anderson said. “Only the exhaustive analysis of formal verification can prove that power controllers and related logic will stay within acceptable operating modes. Thus power, in addition to safety and security concerns, is driving wider adoption of formal technologies for verification of IoT designs.”
