Altera Corporation

Atmel Corporation

Srinivas Perisetty

Andy Louie Lee

Irfan Rahim

Jeffrey T Watt

Qi Xiang

Yanzhong Xu

Shankar Sinha

Jun Liu

Albert Ratnakumar

Shih-Lin S Lee

Jeffrey Xiaoqi Tung

David Lewis

Vaughn Betz

Christopher F Lane

Cheng-Hsiung Huang

Antonio Gallerano

Tim Michael Vanderhoek

Lu Zhou

Thomas Yau-Tsun Wong

Sarathy Sribhashyam

Madhuri Mailavaram

Ping-Chen Liu

Lin-Shih Liu

Jayabrata Ghosh Dastidar

Arvind Sherigar

Jeffery Chow

A field programmable gate array (FPGA) includes a temperature sensor array. The FPGA also includes a supply voltage modulation circuit. The supply voltage modulation circuit is coupled to the temperature sensor array.

Apparatus and methods for on-die temperature sensing to improve FPGA performance

Asymmetric transistors may be formed by creating pocket implants on one source-drain terminal of a transistor and not the other. Asymmetric transistors may also be formed using dual-gate structures having first and second gate conductors of different work functions. Stacked transistors may be formed by stacking two transistors of the same channel type in series. One of the source-drain terminals of each of the two transistors is connected to a common node. The gates of the two transistors are also connected together. The two transistors may have different threshold voltages. The threshold voltage of the transistor that is located higher in the stacked transistor may be provided with a lower threshold voltage than the other transistor in the stacked transistor. Stacked transistors may be used to reduce leakage currents in circuits such as memory cells. Asymmetric transistors may also be used in memory cells to reduce leakage.

Integrated circuits with asymmetric and stacked transistors

A programmable logic device (PLD) includes a non-volatile memory, a configuration memory, and a control circuitry. The control circuitry couples to the non-volatile memory and to the configuration memory. A set of voltages are derived from the outputs of the control circuitry, and are applied to circuitry within the PLD.

Apparatus and methods for power management in integrated circuits

Memory elements are provided that exhibit immunity to soft error upset events when subjected to radiation strikes such as high-energy atomic particle strikes. The memory elements may each have four inverter-like transistor pairs that form a bistable element and a pair of address transistors. There may be four nodes in the transistor each of which is associated with a respective one of the four inverter-like transistor pairs. There may be two control transistors each of which is coupled between the transistors in a respective one of the inverter-like transistor pairs. During data writing operations, the two control transistors may be turned off to temporarily decouple the transistors in two of the four inverter-like transistor pairs.

Memory elements with increased write margin and soft error upset immunity

Integrated circuits with voltage regulation circuitry are provided. Voltage regulation circuitry may be powered by a core supply voltage and may not have a bandgap reference circuit. Voltage regulation circuitry may have an error amplifier in a negative feedback configuration. The error amplifier may have inputs connected to reference voltages generated by resistor strings. The resistor strings may be trimmable to provide a desired negative voltage. The desired negative voltage may be fed to the gates of transistors to help reduce leakage. The desired negative voltage may be have improved tolerance to process-voltage-temperature variations and may improve the reliability of transistors.

Self-biased voltage regulation circuitry for memory

Integrated circuits may include memory elements that are provided with voltage overstress protection. One suitable arrangement of a memory cell may include a latch with two cross-coupled inverters. Each of the two cross-coupled inverters may be coupled between first and second power supply lines and may include a transistor with a gate that is connected to a separate power supply line. Another suitable memory cell arrangement may include three cross-coupled circuits. Two of the three circuits may be powered by a first positive power supply line, while the remaining circuit may be powered by a second positive power supply line. These memory cells may be used to provide an elevated positive static control signal and a lowered ground static control signal to a corresponding pass gate. These memory cells may include access transistors and read buffer circuits that are used during read/write operations.

Memory elements with voltage overstress protection

Dual port memory elements and memory array circuitry that utilizes elevated and non-elevated power supply voltages for performing reliable reading and writing operations are provided. The memory array circuitry may contain circuitry to switch a power supply line of a column of memory elements in the array to an appropriate power supply voltage during reading and writing operations. Each memory element may contain circuitry to select between power supply voltages during reading and writing operations. During reading operations, an elevated voltage may power cross-coupled inverters that store data in the memory elements while a non-elevated voltage may be used to turn on associated address transistors. During writing operations, the non-elevated voltage may power the cross-coupled inverters while the elevated voltage may be used to turn on the associated address transistors.

Static random-access memory with boosted voltages

Methods and systems to improve performance in an Integrated Circuit (IC) are presented. The method includes performing a timing analysis for a circuit design of an IC. The modules in the circuit design use a standard voltage bias by default. In one embodiment, the timing analysis is performed by a circuit design tool. The method then identifies a critical path in the timing analysis, where a signal propagating through the critical path does not meet timing requirements for the circuit design. The method then selects a module of the IC in the critical path to apply a high speed voltage bias to the body of transistors in the module, resulting in a smaller propagation delay thorough the selected module than if the standard voltage bias were applied to the selected module, thus allowing the circuit design to meet the timing requirements.

Performance improvements in an integrated circuit by selectively applying forward bias voltages

An ESD protection circuit is integrated into the core of an FPGA in a distributed fashion coupling the bodies of one or more transistors to the power supply pin and/or the ground pin of the FPGA. The ESD protection circuit includes one or more positive discharge paths and one or more negative discharge paths. In the case of a positive ESD event, the positive discharge paths are on and the negative discharge paths are off. In the case of a negative ESD event, the positive discharge paths are off and the negative discharge paths are on. In either event, the bodies of the transistors track the voltages at the power supply pin and/or the ground pin to protect the core from being by damaged by electrostatic discharge.

Electrostatic discharge protection in a field programmable gate array

An integrated circuit has pins to which electrostatic discharge voltages may be delivered during electrostatic discharge events. Circuitry in the integrated circuit can be protected from damage by the electrostatic discharge voltages by electrostatic discharge protection circuitry. The electrostatic discharge protection circuitry may include one or more diodes that are connected between a given pin and ground to discharge negative electrostatic discharge voltages. Positive electrostatic discharge voltages may be discharged using a transistor that is connected between the pin and ground and that breaks down at a breakdown voltage. A voltage blocking circuit such as a circuit based on a voltage blocking transistor may be used to prevent damaging electrostatic discharge voltages from reaching sensitive circuitry. Pull down circuitry may be used to help ensure that the circuitry is protected from damage during electrostatic discharge events.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Srinivas Perisetty