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Welcome to Low-Power Design, your engineering portal into the world of green/low-power design. We create, aggregate and deliver the latest design news and articles to help power the green revolution.

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Greetings!
Before you run off for the holidays, thank you for your support this past year.
 
Our continuing rapid growth in readership has certainly validated my view that energy efficient design is a major engineering problem whose solution has major social implications. We're still primarily a design site, but especially at this time of year it's good to remember that the work you're doing to reduce energy consumption is also a public service.
 
Now it's time that we all focus on important things closer to home and log some family time. Happy Holidays and best of luck to you in the new year.
 
--John Donovan/Austin
John Donovan
John Donovan Vampires on a Diet
Power converters for portable electronics are ubiquitous and inconspicuous but hardly innocuous. I've got 14 of them in my house alone. As of 2005 they reportedly consumed four percent of the electricity used by the average U.S. home, or over one percent of total U.S. power consumption. More...
Brian Fuller
Brian Fuller
China's pissed (and why we should be concerned)
Chinese engineers are not a happy bunch today. In fact, they're pretty pissed off, according to the annual EE Times Salary Survey. Their anger is saying something because their salaries have soared over the past year, and they understand that. The depth of the dissatisfaction among China's engineers could spell trouble for its industry down the road. More...
Steve Leibson
Steve Leibson Laser Spike Annealing of Nickel in Nanometer CMOS ICs Cuts Leakage 10x
One of the sad facts of life for nanometer silicon has been the rise of leakage current as device geometries shrink. At 65nm, CMOS leakage currents roughly equal operating currents, making it virtually impossible to reduce overall operating current by more than half. I've long thought this was the result of low-Vt transistors that can never fully turn off, a consequence of the drive to recover speed that's lost when supply voltages are cut to reduce operating power. Turns out there's another culprit: nickel contamination. More...
Peregine UltraCMOS
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Reducing EMI in Digital Systems through Spread Spectrum Clock Generators
 
Linton graphicAny device capable of generating signals with frequencies in the RF range is a potential source of Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI). These signals can cause interference in the normal operation of electronic devices such as radios, televisions, cell phones and other types of equipment. The primary sources of EMI in most systems are the clock generation and distribution circuits. More...
High Efficiency Audio Designs for Portable Devices
McCarthy figure 1 With an ever increasing feature set found in today's portable devices, a mobile phone can now function as a multimedia playback system, digital still camera and personal digital assistant (PDA). A portable media player (PMP) is now a navigation system, music player, global positioning system (GPS) and digital film library. Several systems are available with MP3 / MP4 playback, GPS, TV and gaming with web browser. Most manufacturers are now placing a greater emphasis on sound quality because sound is a key element to differentiate their products. More...
Auto-Zero Operational Amplifiers: Benefits in Portable Signal-Conditioning Applications
MCMM flowAt first glance, the term "auto-zero" operational amplifier (op amp) may appear to be something new, but in reality this architectural concept has been around for decades. This article will explore the history behind auto-zero op amps and provide a high-level overview of the architecture. Additionally, the article will explore the inherent benefits of this architecture for signal-conditioning applications. Finally, an example application will be analyzed to further compare the auto-zero architecture to that of traditional op amps. More...
How to Make Mobile WiMax Consumer Devices a Reality
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With the completion of the IEEE 802.16e specification, mobile broadband service is now beginning around the world bringing fixed broadband services to homes and businesses. There are now over 75 commercial networks in operation worldwide supporting 1.3M subscribers. The bulk of these subscribers are using fixed WiMax service. To continue subscriber growth, network service providers have realized giving consumers the ability to "take the internet wherever you go" has huge potential. To do this effectively, mobile devices are needed that will mimic the internet experience at home regardless of location. More...
Lower Supply Voltages Enable Low-Power Portable Electronic Devices
Silistix graphic The tremendous growth in the semiconductor industry over the last two decades has largely been a result of the scaling of CMOS devices which, over the years, has yielded lower costs with more die per wafer, smaller feature sizes and increased performance. However, device scaling has reached a point of threshold today, wherein its benefits are realized only if a device's power consumption can be reduced by a few orders of magnitude. More...
Is Global Warming a Hoax?
 digital powerHaving long since been politicized, the debate over global warming has become yet another front in the political culture wars. With the climate change deniers being led by such flat-earth luminaries as James Inhofe and Darrell Issa, it's easy for anyone with upwards of half a brain to dismiss their followers as a bunch of babbling idiots. While some of them clearly are, unfortunately, fellow tree huggers, they have a point. More...
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That's a brief look at what we have to offer--and we're adding more every day. Please check back with us regularly to get the latest news, tips and techniques for implementing green/low-power designs.

Sincerely,
John Donovan
Low-Power Design