Em Microelectronic-marin Sa

Advanced Technology Materials, Inc.

Microelectronics Research Development Corp.

Dean Allum

Trevor A Blyth

Philip C Barnett

David Sowards

Bruce Carl Wall

The invention is a radiation hardened charge-pump system and method of using polysilicon diodes and metal-to-metal capacitors in a standard CMOS process technology that provides boosted positive or negative voltages higher than power supply voltage levels, that reduces or eliminates field leakage, bipolar snap-back, SEL problems, and the SEGR problem. The charge-pump system is arranged as multiple parallel redundant pumps to harden the circuit so that if there is a single-event transient, or an unknown polysilicon-diode failure in a new technology, the remaining pumps will continue to operate. A diode placed at the end of each redundant pump section allows charge to be placed onto the high voltage node without removing charge due to failure of one of the sections. With the use of auxiliary circuits, such as a voltage doubler, this hardened charge pump can be used reliably at low power supply voltage levels.

Radiation hardened charge pump

The present invention relates to a radio-frequency identification tag () and a related method of operation, whereby the tag comprises an antenna () being adapted to draw a voltage from an externally applied RF field having a first frequency, and further comprises a tunable antenna resonant circuit () comprising a default resonance frequency and having tuning means () for shifting the resonance frequency to the first frequency, whereby non-volatile storage means () for storing frequency related data are provided, that are accessible at a reduced voltage level, which is below a 'power-up' voltage level of the tag's operating unit ().

Circuit and method for power-up optimization of RFID transponder

A voltage multiplier circuit in particular for programmable memories is supplied by a low voltage. This circuit includes an oscillator which generates a clock signal and a charge pump circuit controlled by the clock signal. The charge pump boosts a DC supply voltage to a high voltage which is looped back to a voltage feedback regulator. A multiplexer which is placed between the oscillator and the charge pump, receives a gating signal from the regulator which depends on the comparison of the high output voltage to a determined regulation voltage.

Power efficient integrated charge pump using clock gating

By reducing the size of the blocks or pages that are contained in a FLASH EEPROM array that must be erased in a write or erase operation, the size of register needed is reduced, making it easier for the processor to handle smaller blocks of information, reducing the size and complexity of the microprocessor, and increasing the endurance of the FLASH EEPROM allowing it to be used in place of the state of the art EEPROM. Replacing mask ROM by flash EEPROM allows full testing of the code storage area as well as allowing customers to use that space for testing in their manufacturing procedures. The code used for testing can then be cleared and reprogrammed with the final code storage before final shipment.

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Colorado Springs, CO, United States of America

Dean Allum