Self‐Timed Asynchronous RISC‐V Microprocessor for Contactless Cards

Contactless smart cards operate using power harvested through inductive coupling, which requires the use of extremely low-power, supply-tolerant digital architectures. This work presents a self-timed RISC-V RV32I microprocessor that replaces the global clock with an asynchronous finite state machine based on a handshake protocol. This control scheme naturally adapts to supply voltage fluctuations, reducing both average and peak power consumption while ensuring the microprocessor operates robustly under variable conditions. The microprocessor was fabricated using a (Formula presented.) CMOS process and was then compared with equivalent synchronous implementations.