Tolerating Aging-Induced Timing Violations Via Configurable Approximations

Abstract

This paper proposes a technique that increases the lifetime of consumer electronics devices. As semiconductor technology improves in miniaturizing transistors, aging effect due to Bias Temperature Instability (BTI) has serious impact on their lifetime. BTI increases the threshold voltage of transistors and thus the delay of an electronics device also increases, resulting in failures due to timing violations. To compensate for aging-induced timing violations, this paper exploits configurable approximate computing. Assuming that target circuits have an exact and an approximate modes, they are configured to the approximate mode if an aging sensor predicts the violations. The estimation on an example circuit shows its lifetime is increased to over ten years without any additional power consumption.