Local Condition Monitoring in integrated circuits using a set of Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests

Today mobile computing platforms need everincreasing computational performances while their energy consumption is drastically limited by battery lifespan. An optimal operating point is obtained thanks to a compromise between performance and power consumption. For distributed architectures (e.g. MultiProcessor System On Chip), the supply voltage and the operating frequency of each processing element are usually tuned dynamically to reach efficient performance/power consumption trade-offs. As a consequence, the physical state (e.g. its current supply voltage and temperature) of the integrated circuit must be monitored to locally adapt the chip parameters. In the present paper, a new method based on statistical tests is proposed to estimate the supply voltage and temperature of a local area in an integrated circuit. The raw measurements are acquired form standard ring oscillators buried in the chip. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the method with mean absolute errors of 6mV and 9°C for the estimated supply voltage and temperature respectively.