This thesis pertains to circuit designs using the promising asynchronous-logic (async) approach as opposed to the prevalent synchronous-logic (sync) approach, with emphases on low voltage operation and low energy dissipation. The circuits designed herein span from low-level circuits (microcells, where the transistor count is < 100), mid-level circuits (macrocells, where the transistor count is > 100) to a complete system-a Fast Fourier Transform/Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (FFT/IFFT) processor that in part embodies these microcells and macrocells. The application of the processor is for energy-critical portable audio biomedical applications, including hearing aids. The novel microcells include a Latch Adder (LA), a Latch Accumulator, a Type-γ adder (a 2-bit async carry completion sensing adder), and an async latch controller in broad data validation. The novelty of these microcells includes the incorporation of different functional features (e.g. latch and delay enhancements), resulting in increased versatility, compactness, and lower energy dissipation. The novel macrocells include a 16×16-bit Booth array-based multiplier core, a 16×16bit 'Control-Multiplier' specifically for an FFT algorithm, and a 128×16-bit memory macrocell. The novelty of these macrocells includes reduced spurious switching (e.g. by means of latching and gating), resulting in reduced energy dissipation. The functionality and attributes of these microcells and macrocells are verified by computer simulations and on the basis of practical measurements on prototype ICs.
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