Abstract: A titanium nitride-based metamaterial, and method for producing the same, is disclosed, consisting of ultrathin, smooth, and alternating layers of a plasmonic titanium nitride (TiN) material and a dielectric material, grown on a substrate to form a superlattice. The dielectric material is made of A1-xScxN, where ‘x’ ranges in value from 0.2 to 0.4. The layers of alternating material have sharp interfaces, and each layer can range from 1-20 nanometers in thickness. Metamaterials based on titanium TiN, a novel plasmonic building block, have many applications including, but not ‘limited to emission enhancers, computer security, etc. The use of nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond, and light emitting diode (LED) efficiency enhancement is of particular interest.

Abstract: An example method for optimizing power consumption of digital circuits using dynamic voltage and threshold scaling (DVTS) is provided. A propagation delay of a signal through a portion of the circuit is determined and if the propagation delay does not meet a specified delay requirement, then a supply voltage and/or threshold voltage of the circuit is adjusted. Subsequently, a power consumption level of the circuit is determined and compared to previous power consumption levels. The supply and/or threshold voltage of the circuit can be readjusted to enable the circuit to meet specified power consumption requirements and the specified delay requirement, for example.