Power Gating
Power gating is a low-power design technique in digital integrated circuits that involves shutting off power to unused or idle circuit blocks to reduce static power consumption. It uses power switches (e.g., header or footer transistors) to disconnect blocks from the power supply or ground, effectively eliminating leakage current. This method is critical in modern semiconductor design to manage energy efficiency, especially in battery-powered devices and high-performance computing systems.
Developers should learn power gating when designing energy-efficient hardware, such as for mobile devices, IoT sensors, or data centers, where minimizing power consumption extends battery life and reduces operational costs. It is essential in advanced process nodes (e.g., below 28nm) where leakage power becomes a significant portion of total power, and it's used in scenarios like sleep modes or dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) to optimize performance per watt.