Marvell International Limited

Intel Corporation

Manish Biyani

Franco Ricci

Lawrence T Clark

Shay P Demmons

A system for storing state values during standby mode operation comprises a master flip flop that receives and stores state information during active mode operation and an associated slave flip flop that receives and stores state information during active mode and standby mode operation. The system further comprises a standby mode control circuit to control the state of the master and slave flip flops during active and standby mode operation based on at least two control signals. A first transfer gate determines the current flow to and from the master flip flop based on the output of the standby mode control circuit. Similarly, a second transfer gate determines current flow to and from the slave flip flop based on the output of the standby mode control circuit. A first power supply powers the master flip flop during active mode operation. Similarly, a separate always-on power supply powers the slave flip flop and standby mode control circuit during active mode and standby mode operation to enable state retention.

State-retentive master-slave flip flop to reduce standby leakage current

A device can include 1) a sustained or constantly powered low leakage latch to and from which a volatile state is uploaded and downloaded, respectively, based on an active-to-low signal, and 2) an intermittently powered or de-powerable memory element, coupled to the low leakage latch, from which and to which the volatile state is uploaded and downloaded, respectively, based on the active-to-low signal and a de-powerable voltage across the de-powerable memory element is powered and un-powered, respectively.

State-retentive scan latch

An integrated circuit having a state retentive memory structure to store state values. A high performance section uses thin gate-oxide transistors and the state retentive memory structure uses thick gate-oxide transistors to capture and retain the state values when operating in a low power mode.

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Chandler, AZ, United States of America

Manish Biyani