Ablic Inc.

Seiko Instruments Inc

Sii Semiconductor Corporation

Tomoki Hikichi

Minoru Ariyama

Kentaro Fukai

Daisuke Muraoka

Manabu Fujimura

Takaaki Hioka

Takemasa Miura

Takahiro Ito

Masahiro Mitani

Hironori Yano

Kozo Iijima

Masashi Shiga

A sensor device includes: a sensor element, outputting a signal; a first determination circuit, outputting an initialization signal containing a signal level corresponding to a determination result as to whether detection of a physical quantity has matched two consecutive times; a second determination circuit, including a counter which is able to, while initializing a count value if the detection of the physical quantity does not occur two consecutive times, continue counting if the detection of the physical quantity occurs two consecutive times until a set number of times is reached, the second determination circuit outputting an output latch signal containing a signal level corresponding to whether a consecutive match occurs until the set number of times is reached; and an output register, switching a signal level of an output signal supplied to an output terminal according to a change in the signal level of the output latch signal.

Sensor device and semiconductor device including the same

A voltage fluctuation detection circuit includes: a source voltage decrease detection circuit configured to detect a decrease in voltage of a first power supply which outputs a first voltage and to output the result of detection as a voltage decrease detection signal using a second voltage which is lower than the voltage of the first power supply; an erroneous detection prevention circuit configured to detect an increase in voltage of the first power supply and to output the result of detection as a voltage increase detection signal using the second voltage; and a transistor configured to mask outputting of the voltage decrease detection signal in a period in which the increase in voltage of the first power supply is being detected based on the voltage increase detection signal.

Voltage fluctuation detection circuit

A semiconductor device includes a magnetic switch provided on a semiconductor substrate. The magnetic switch includes: a Hall element, first and second power supply terminals; a current source driving the Hall element; a switch circuit switching a differential output voltage supplied from two electrodes of the Hall element to a first or second state based on a control signal supplied from a control terminal; an amplifier amplifying a signal from the switch circuit; a reference voltage circuit generating a reference voltage based on a reference common mode voltage and a control signal; a comparator receiving an output signal of the amplifier and the reference voltage; and a latch circuit latching an output voltage of the comparator. The reference voltage of the reference voltage circuit is controlled by switching from a reference value to a voltage with a high or low adjustment value according to the output voltage of the comparator.

Semiconductor device

Provided is a sensor device provided with improved reproducibility of a switching characteristic and reduced average consumption current. A sensor device include: a sensor; a drive circuit configured to drive the sensor; a processing circuit configured to output a binary result signal obtained by binarizing an electrical signal output from the sensor; a determination circuit configured to capture the binary result signal a plurality of times and perform a predetermined logical determination processing; a latch circuit configured to capture an output signal of the determination circuit; an output terminal; and a control circuit configured to output a control signal for intermittently controlling at least one of the drive circuit and the processing circuit such that an operation period and a pause period are repeated with a predetermined cycle. The operation period is interrupted and caused to transition to the pause period in a predetermined case.

Sensor device

The semiconductor device includes a Hall element, a first differential pair, a second differential pair, an output amplifier circuit, and a voltage divider circuit. The Hall element outputs a signal that is dependent on stress to be applied to a semiconductor substrate to the first differential pair. The voltage divider circuit divides a voltage into a divided voltage having a voltage dividing ratio that is dependent on the stress. The first differential pair outputs a first current based on the signal. The second differential pair outputs a second current based on the divided voltage and a reference voltage. The output amplifier circuit outputs a voltage based on the first and second currents. A gain of the output amplifier circuit is approximated by a sum of a difference between stress dependence coefficients of transconductances of the first and second differential pairs and a stress dependence coefficient of the voltage dividing ratio.

The semiconductor device includes a magnetic switch provided to a semiconductor substrate. The magnetic switch includes: a horizontal Hall element including first electrodes and second electrodes arranged at positions perpendicular to the first electrodes; a switch circuit configured to select a drive current direction of the Hall element from four directions; an SH comparator configured to alternately perform a first operation for sampling a signal transmitted from the Hall element and a second operation for sending a signal which is based on a result of comparing a value of the sampled signal and a reference value; a latch circuit configured to hold this sent signal and send the held signal as a latch output signal; and a control circuit configured to select the drive current direction in each of a period for the first operation and a period for the second operation based on the latch output signal.

A semiconductor device includes a vertical Hall element provided in a first region of a semiconductor substrate, and having the first to the third electrodes arranged side by side in order along a first straight line; a circuit provided in a second region of the semiconductor substrate different from the first region, and having a heat source; and a second straight line intersecting orthogonally a current path for a Hall element drive current which flows between the first electrode and the third electrode. The second line passes a center of the vertical Hall element, and a center point of a region which reaches the highest temperature in the circuit during an operation of the vertical Hall element lies on the second straight line.

Provided is a magnetic sensor circuit and includes: a magnetic sensor outputting a first sensor signal based on a magnetic flux density in a first direction; a magnetic sensor outputting a second sensor signal based on a magnetic flux density in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction; a signal processing circuit respectively obtaining a first detection signal and a second detection signal which transition between low and high levels based on the first magnetic sensor signal and the second magnetic sensor signal; a driver outputting a first output voltage based on the first detection signal; a driver outputting a second output voltage based on the second detection signal; and a voltage monitoring circuit generating mode signals whose signal levels transition based on transitions of voltage levels of the first output voltage and the second output voltage input thereto.

Magnetic sensor circuit

Provided is a magnetic sensor circuit in which increase of a delay time period is suppressed to be small without reducing a noise suppressing effect, in a case where there are multiple magnetic field detection axes. A magnetic sensor circuit is configured to subject detection signals obtained from multiple magnetic-field detection axes to time division processing, and includes a magnetic detector including at least two magnetic sensors, a switching circuit selecting a magnetic sensor represented by a selection signal to transmit the detection signal, a comparator, a control circuit, and output terminals. The control circuit supplies the selection signal to the switching circuit, and determines that the magnetic field is detected in a case where the number of times that a signal level of the signal supplied from the switching circuit exceeds a reference level reaches the number of set times that is set to a plurality of times.

A semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor substrate of a P type includes: a vertical resistor circuit including a resistor of an N type, the resistor forming a current path in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the semiconductor substrate; a Hall element provided on the semiconductor substrate, the Hall element being configured to supply a voltage proportional to a magnetic flux density in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate; an amplifier configured to amplify the voltage supplied from the Hall element, and supply the amplified voltage; a current/voltage conversion circuit configured to supply, as a comparison reference voltage, a voltage containing a product of a reference current IREF flowing through the vertical resistor circuit and a resistance value RREF of the vertical resistor circuit; and a comparator configured to receive the voltage supplied from the amplifier and the comparison reference voltage.

A stress compensation control circuit of the present invention is provided which is capable of using a compensation error similar to that at room temperature even at a high temperature and reducing the area of a chip for a semiconductor sensor as compared with the related art. The stress compensation control circuit compensates for a change in detection sensitivity due to a stress to be applied to the semiconductor sensor. The stress compensation control circuit includes a stress compensation voltage generating circuit generating a stress compensation voltage corresponding to the applied stress in accordance with a difference between changes in transconductance due to stresses in a first depletion transistor and a first enhancement transistor, and performs compensation for the detection sensitivity in correspondence to the stress applied to the semiconductor sensor.

Stress compensation control circuit and semiconductor sensor device

The semiconductor device includes a first vertical Hall element provided in a first region of a semiconductor substrate, and including a first plurality of electrodes arranged at predetermined intervals on a first straight line, a second vertical Hall element provided in a second region of the semiconductor substrate different from the first region, and including a second plurality of electrodes of the same number as that of the first plurality of electrodes, the second plurality of electrodes being arranged at the predetermined intervals on a second straight line parallel to the first straight line, a first drive power source configured to drive the first vertical Hall element, and a second drive power source configured to drive the second vertical Hall element and provided separately from the first drive power source.

Semiconductor device and method of adjusting the same

The semiconductor device includes a vertical Hall element that is provided in a first region of a semiconductor substrate and has a plurality of first electrodes, and a resistive element that is provided in a second region different from the first region in the semiconductor substrate and has a plurality of second electrodes. The plurality of first electrodes and the plurality of second electrodes are connected so that resistances of current paths are substantially the same in any phase in which the vertical Hall element is driven using a spinning current method.

A magnetic sensor circuit includes: one of a first magnetic sensor element configured to output a voltage in accordance with a vertical magnetic field and a second magnetic sensor element configured to output a voltage in accordance with a horizontal magnetic field; a magnetic field signal processing circuit configured to output a signal in accordance with the voltage; at least three terminals capable of being connected to an external element, the at least three terminals being a first, a second, and a third terminal; a first wiring connecting the first terminal and the second terminal; and a second wiring connecting the first terminal and the third terminal in which one of the first magnetic sensor element and the second magnetic sensor element is arranged at a position where detection of a magnetic field generated by one of the first wiring and the second wiring is capable.

Growing community of inventors

Chiba, Japan

Tomoki Hikichi