Accepted: 2025-06-17
With the development of semiconductor technology towards the deep sub-micron node, traditional synchronous circuits are facing increasing challenges in issues such as clock skew and high power consumption of the clock tree. Compared with traditional synchronous circuits, the asynchronous architecture, which uses a local handshake protocol to replace the global clock signal, is gradually becoming a new paradigm for high-performance computing chip design due to its modular design, lack of clock skew, and low-power consumption advantages.This paper focuses on the technological requirements for high-performance integrated circuit chips in future fields such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. From the perspectives of the clock tree and the handshake protocol, it analyzes the limitations of synchronous circuits in large-scale integrated circuits, reviews the latest progress in asynchronous circuit technology, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the handshake protocol in terms of operating speed, energy efficiency, and anti - interference, and prospects the next key research directions of asynchronous circuits.