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Near-threshold (NT) FFs, which operate from a supply voltage close to the transistor threshold voltage, are considered as a good alternative for portable applications, where low power dissipation with reasonable performance is the main demand. This paper presents an improved model for delay/energy estimation of the NT FFs. The proposed model, based on the EKV current and alpha power law models, improves the existing model by taking into account the rise and fall times of all internal nodes of the FF. The fitting parameters that are required for the model development were extracted from measurements of a test chip that was fabricated in a standard CMOS low power 80nm process. We show how the proposed model can be utilized for NT Master-Slave FF delay and energy estimation, showing an improvement of up to x100 in the precision of calculations compared to the existing model.

An autonomous image sensor for real time target detection and tracking is presented. The sensor is based on a CMOS APS array, equipped with in-pixel functionality and integrates analog and digital components to achieve autonomous operation with minimal power dissipation. The system employs a two-phased operation flow; during the initial acquisition stage, the digital controller detects and acquires the brightest targets in the field of view within a single frame and defines windows of interest (WOI) around the center of mass coordinates of each object. Subsequently, the system moves into the analog tracking mode during which all areas outside of the WOI are entirely shut down, thus saving power to a number of orders of magnitude. In addition to its low power dissipation, the sensor features real-time operation, low fixed pattern noise, linearity and the ability to track a predefined number of targets throughout the entire field of view. A 64x64 pixel sensor array has been designed in 0.18µm CMOS technology and is operated via a 1.8V supply. The imager architecture is discussed, the circuits' descriptions are shown and simulation results are presented.