ZeROA: Zero Clock Skew Rotary Oscillatory Array

Resonant rotary clocking is a clocking technology for high frequency clock generation and distribution at a low power dissipation rate. It is commonly conceived that the multiple phases on the rings of the rotary oscillatory array (ROA) necessitate a non-zero clock skew operation. In this paper, the feasibility of zero clock skew synchronization with the rotary clocking technology implemented on the ROA is shown. Design automation experiments are performed to demonstrate that the zero clock skew operation can be achieved with minimal change in the performance of rotary clock operation. In particular, a marginal ±1.5% change in the tapping wirelength and a negligible 0.38% average skew mismatch are reported in experiments on R1-R5 and ISPD 2010 benchmark circuits.