Introduction to Idle Modes and Always-On Domains Finally, in the last part, various implementations of Always-ON domains are compared regarding their benefits in terms of current consumption, BoM (Bill-Of-Material) cost and silicon area.ġ. In the second part, the benefits and the ways to reduce the power consumption of the Always-On domain are illustrated. In the first part of this article, the architecture and the most common characteristics of the Always-On domain are presented. Different architectures for Always-On power domains and their related performances are discussed in the following sections.
To extend the operation time of such battery-operated SoC by x2 to x20, it is interesting to reach a current consumption below 500 nA for the Always-On power domain. For such applications, the design of the “Always-On power domain' (a.k.a AON power domain) is pivotal. Numerous applications, such as M2M, BLE, Zigbee…, have an activity rate (duty cycle) such that the power consumption in sleep mode dominates the overall current drawn by the SoC (System on Chip). By Sebastien Genevey, Christian Dominguez (Dolphin Integration)Īllowing battery-powered devices to run, without battery recharge, for years rather than months, partakes in enhancing significantly end-user satisfaction and is a key point to enabling the emergence of IoT applications.
