Techniques are disclosed for permitting low power operation of a signal processing circuit, such as a mixed signal processing circuit, by operating devices of the digital signal processing side at an energy-delay minimum. To permit this to occur, the negative logic supply rail of the digital signal processing circuit is operated at a negative potential. This negative potential is generated using a charge pump on an integrated circuit chip which can be also used to create a negative substrate potential. A positive logic supply rail can be generated using a DC to DC converter or voltage regulator. The potential of the positive logic supply rail can be negative, as long at it is more positive than the potential of the negative logic supply rail.